scientist can learn a lot about the prehistoric human race through very , veryold poop . Just recently , investigator from the University of Colorado - Boulder and Kent State University studying fossilized dinosaur dirt discovered that some herbivores were n’t as picky about their diets as we thought . Though they mostly ate plants , large dinosaurs living in Utah 75 million years ago also seem to have eaten prehistorical crustaceans , asNature Newsreports .
The new subject area , put out inScientific Reports , finds that large dinosaurs of the Late Cretaceous period seem to have eaten crabs , along with rotting wood , free-base on the content of theircoprolites(the more scientific condition for prehistorical No . 2 ) . The fossilised remains of dinos ' can activities were found in the Kaiparowits rock formation in Utah ’s Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument , a knownhotspotfor pristine tardy Cretaceous fossil .
" The large size and woody contents " of the the skinny suggest that they were create by dinosaurs that were well - equipped to process fiber in their diets , as the study puts it , leading the researchers to suggest that the crap came from enceinte herbivores likehadrosaurs , whose remains have been see in the area before .
While scientist antecedently thought that plant - eat up dinosaurs like duck-billed dinosaur only eat vegetation , these findings suggest otherwise . " The diet represented by the Kaiparowits coprolites would have provide a woody stew of plant , fungal , and invertebrate tissues , " the researchers write , include crabs ( Yum ) . These crustaceans would have provided a big reference of calcium for the dinosaurs , and the other invertebrates that no doubt last in the rot logs would have provided a secure reference of protein .
But they probably did n’t eat the rot wood all class , rather munching on dead tree seasonally or during times when other food source were n’t available . Another theory is that these " ancient fecal producers , " as the researcher call them , might have eaten the rotting Grant Wood , with its Ca - copious crustacean and protein - laden invertebrates , during egg product , similar to the feeding patterns ofmodern birdsduring cover time of year .
disregardless of the reason , these findings could transfer how we think about what big dinosaur ate .
[ h / tNature News ]
