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scientist have made a discovery in empathize how the dinosaur rose to power — by consider dino barf and dirt .
The findings , put out Nov. 27 in the journalNature , offer new insights into the dieting of these prehistorical powerhouses , uncover clues into how they pressure out their competition .
Reconstructing prehistoric food webs offers new insights into the dinosaurs' rise to global dominance.
" Diet and environmental science are significant factors shaping the evolution of animals today and in the past , " study co - authorMartin Qvarnström , an evolutionary biologist at Uppsala University in Sweden , told Live Science in an email . " Just analyzing ivory remains wo n’t reduce it if we want to see the ascent of dinosaur . "
Theearliest evidence of dinosaursin the fossil criminal record go steady to the mid - Triassic menstruum ( 247 million to 237 million years ago ) . However , it took another 40 million years — into the other Jurassic period — for them to take over the world . During this time , the dinosaurs terminate many of the other big land animals — but exactly how they did this persist a secret .
To find out out more , the subject authors analyzed more than 500 fossilized cadaver from the Polish Basin , spanning the former Triassic to the other Jurassic .
Fossilized dinosaur poop, also known as coprolites, can offer unparalleled insights into the dinosaurs' diets, feeding behaviours, physiology and parasites.
But they were n’t interested in the dinosaurs ' pearl . Instead , they looked at the dinos ' fossilised vomit and poop — known as regurgitalites and coprolites , respectively . These can supply vital information on the diet , feeding behavior , physiology andparasitesof the creatures they came from , Qvarnström order .
They also enable scientists to equate these dinosaurs ' diets to those of other fauna from the catamenia and track how they convert over time .
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Qvarnström say that he was really excited about the motley of unlike foods that were found in these dodo . " We have seen everything from tiny beetle to half - accomplished fish , bones , tooth , and industrial plant remains , " he said .
The fossilized vomit grant peculiarly fascinating finds , study Colorado - authorGrzegorz Niedźwiedzki , a paleontologist at Uppsala University , say .
" We find out a piece of atemnospondyl amphibianskull [ prehistorical fauna that look like jumbo toads , ] " Niedźwiedzki told Live Science in an email . " No one would have guessed that such monolithic temnopsondyls were attractive to predators . It was honestly easy to break your teeth on such a massive skull . "
Another piece of puke hold back the bones of a small crocodile .
By commingle their finding with diachronic climate and flora data , the squad reconstruct these prehistorical food webs and tracked how they changed over time . One define feature of the dinosaur diet was the diversity of different intellectual nourishment that they consumed , enable them to adjust to their change environs . This put them ahead of their more specialized competitors , particularly when times were problematical .
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Because they were n’t picky eaters , plant - eating dinosaurs may have also been able-bodied to grow much larger , permit the phylogeny of larger carnivores .
Lawrence Tanner , a professor of environmental skill system at Le Moyne College in New York United States Department of State who published a comment on the new study , added that the reconstructive memory also evoke dino domination claim place in stages through the late Triassic and was n’t " the result of any single catastrophic outcome . "
The investigator go for to expand their research to other component part of the world to confirm their findings and learn more about dinosaur diet . " There is still a lot to be explored , " Niedźwiedzki enjoin .
