Study Finds some Dinosaurs Snacked on Seaweed Washed Ashore
Researchers found elevated carbon isotope signatures in coastal fossils, suggesting dinosaurs and other animals ate marine plants washed ashore.
- A new study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution suggests dinosaurs living along ancient coastlines supplemented their diets with seaweed around 100 million years ago.
- University of Arkansas geologist Clayton Forster analyzed carbon isotope signatures in fossilized teeth to investigate why coastal dinosaurs exhibited unexpectedly high values compared to inland counterparts.
- Researchers identified marine subsidization , a process where coastal animals consume marine matter like seaweed to supplement diets, a behavior shared by modern herbivores today.
- Fossils from the Western Interior Seaway and the ancient Gulf of Mexico coastline confirmed consistent carbon signatures, linking terrestrial and marine ecosystems during the Cretaceous period.
- Forster noted that not all dinosaur species exploited marine resources; the Tenontosaurus relied on land-growing plants, indicating dietary variability among coastal Cretaceous fauna.
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37 Articles
Dinosaurs May Have Dined on Seaweed, Study Suggests
Paleontologists studying Cretaceous fossils have repeatedly found that the teeth of many ancient animals contain more of a heavier carbon isotope, carbon-13, than their presumed plant-based diets would predict. The post Dinosaurs May Have Dined on Seaweed, Study Suggests appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
Fossil teeth from ancient North American coastlines suggest some dinosaurs supplemented land diets with seaweed and other marine food, revealing a coastal feeding link that existed more than 100 million years ago
More than 100 million years ago, the boundary between land and sea may have been a little less distinct than it looks on a map.
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Study finds some dinosaurs snacked on seaweed washed ashore
But not all dinosaurs exploited marine resources.
Dinosaur snacked on seaweed washed up on North American coasts, fossil teeth suggest
Storms routinely wash marine material ashore, providing food for land animals and other organisms. This is known as marine subsidization (MS). Today, MS is particularly common in coastal ecosystems and is especially important to animals when land ecosystems produce less food than usual, such as during droughts. A new Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution study has shown that dinos and their prey, too, may have eaten seafood washed onto beaches.
Dinosaurs and their prey could have been fed seafood dragged to the beaches, which explains the mysterious and high signatures of carbon isotopes [...]
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