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Megaherbivores of the Mesozoic Era – gigantic sauropods such as the famous Diplodocus, Brachiosaure and Apatosaurus. And, judging by their gargantuan size, scientists have long assumed that these dinosaurs needed large amounts of plant food to produce enough energy for their daily needs
. a new study found that the largest land animals of all time did not really need food as it was believed, Science Daily reports.
The research, led by Dr. Fiona Gill of the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, focused on the feeding of sauropods during the Upper Jurassic and made important discoveries regarding the nutrition of these reptiles Giants – one of the oldest groups of dinosaurs, according to the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California at Berkeley, California
These giant sauropods have traversed the three geological periods of 39; Mesozoic era, traversing the ancient plains of the planet for a hundred million years, from the Triassic to the Cretaceous. But they were more prevalent towards the end of the Jurassic (the interim period), a time when the atmosphere contained high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2).
This made plants grow and grow faster, which scientists have always associated with decreasing nutritional value. But, in fact, this was not necessarily the case
. In an unusual experiment, Gill's team decided to grow some plants that giant sauropods frequently grazed, such as horsetail and ginkgo, but with a twist. For their gardening exercise, the researchers reproduced the same high-CO2 atmospheric conditions that food of the dinosaurs would have grown 150 million years ago in the Upper Jurassic.
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Once this part of the experiment was over, scientists began to determine the nutritional value of the plants using an artificial fermentation system simulating the process of digestion of the leaves as it would have occurred in the stomach of a sauropod.
The results revealed that higher Jurassic plants had a much higher nutritional value than previously thought and thus provided much more energy than expected.
"We do not need to gorge ourselves on plants and eat much less per day than we imagined."
"Our research does not give a complete picture of the dinosaur diet nor does it cover the width of the plants that existed at the time. Understanding how dinosaurs ate can help scientists understand how they lived, "says Gill, who is a paleontologist and geochemist at the School of Earth and Environmental Affairs. university
the dinner of a dinosaur | #Geology #GeologyPage
Scientists measured the nutritional value of the diet of herbivorous dinosaurs by growing their food under atmospheric conditions similar to those prevailing 150 million years ago. ; years.
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– Geology page (@GeologyPage) July 14, 2018
The results, published this week in the journal Paleontology indicate that there could have been more giant sauropods on Earth than science had estimated – perhaps even 20% more, since the use of fewer resources per individual meant that the ecosystem could have endured more dinosaurs
would suggest that they needed huge amounts of energy to support them. When the available food source has higher levels of nutrients and energy, it means less food to consume to provide enough energy, which can affect the size and density of the population, Gill explains. plants growing in prehistoric atmospheric conditions could also be applied to other ecosystems and used to learn about "the regimes of other ancient megaherbivores, such as Miocene mammals – the ancestors of many modern mammals …
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