2023-12-16 23:00:00
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The tyrannosaurids that dominated the ecosystems of Asia and North America towards the end of the Cretaceous period (approximately 80 to 66 million years ago), experienced significant changes in their morphology during their growth.
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The youngest were graceful, with narrow skulls and sharp teeth, contrasting with the robust adults, equipped with massive skulls and large teeth capable of biting and crushing bones. This morphological evidence suggests an important dietary transition throughout their development, where young and adults occupied different ecological niches.
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El caso del Gorgosaurus balanced
And recent discovery sheds light on this dietary transition. This is an articulated skeleton of a young man Gorgosaurus libratus (a close cousin of the huge T. rex.), approximately 5 to 7 years old, found in the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, Canada. The most extraordinary thing is that the remains of two small theropods were preserved in its abdominal cavity, indicating that they were consumed in two separate feeding events.
These remains, preserved in the correct anatomical position, represent the first direct evidence of stomach contents in a tyrannosaur and provide an unprecedented glimpse into the feeding habits of young tyrannosaurs.
Darla Zelenitsky of the University of Calgary, one of the lead scientists on the study, thus explains that there is clear evidence that tyrannosaurs had a noticeably changed diet as they aged.
A change in understanding of Tyrannosaurs
Fossil evidence reveals that dinosaurs megaherbivorous (i.e. species with an adult mass greater than 1,000 kg, including ceratopsids, giant ornithomimosaurs, hadrosaurids and sauropods) were common prey of large tyrannosaurids. Feeding on these required craniodental adaptations and bite forces that only developed when individuals reached the advanced juvenile or early subadult growth stages.
Thus, this finding is significant for several reasons. First, it provides direct evidence that young tyrannosaurs fed on smaller, younger prey, such as caenagnathids, before reaching a size where their diet shifted to megaherbivores. Furthermore, it reveals that tyrannosaurs occupied roles as both mesopredators and apex predators throughout their lives, which may have been key to their evolutionary success.
This study not only enriches our understanding of the feeding habits and development of tyrannosaurs, but also highlights the importance of ontogenetic changes in the ecology of these ancient predators. The ability to adapt its diet throughout its development may have been a crucial factor in its dominance in Cretaceous ecosystems. This discovery opens new avenues of research into the ecology and evolution of carnivorous dinosaurs and their interaction with the environment that surrounded them..
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