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Science

Grass Grazing In Dinosaurs Confirmed 177

Posted by Zonk from the delicious-garden-salad dept.
longhawn writes "Reuters AlertNet reports that a team of researchers found evidence in India that dinosaurs ate grass. This discovery was made when scientists found pieces of grass in fossilized dinosaur dung (coprolites). Prior to this finding, scientists did not even know that grass existed at that time." From the article: "Few scientists had ever thought that dinosaurs grazed, because there was no evidence that grasses existed that long ago. They believed that the grinding teeth found in some dinosaur fossils were used for munching other plant matter, perhaps trees, like modern beavers chew on today."
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Grass Grazing In Dinosaurs Confirmed More

Grass Grazing In Dinosaurs Confirmed

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  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @03:34AM (#14074330)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:You left them out :( (Score:3, Interesting)

      by tloh ( 451585 )
      Wow! Who would've thought such information would be discernable when soft tissue like digestive organs are almost never fossilized?!?! I'm racking my brains and I can't think of a single modern reptile that can handle the same diet. Do we have anything to compare with to get some idea of what form the internal organs of herbivore dinosaurs might take? God! I've got to be missing something... What modern reptile eats grass?
      • "God! I've got to be missing something... What modern reptile eats grass?"

        Yes, you are missing something. Dinosaurs were not reptiles, many belive their closest living relatives are birds. Also they didn't get the "ate grass" evidence from digestive organs, it was found in fossilised dino turds. Why not read TFA next time?
        • You are right about the birds. But him talking about the digestive organs makes perfect sense (with his incorrect premise.) Some species can not eat grass because their digestive tract can not handle it. Just as some can't handle meat. If we had found meat in some herbivore's dung people could legitimately ask, "what do we not know about this herbivore? did they find any part of its digestive tract to indicate that it was different somehow?"

          • Re:You left them out :( (Score:3, Informative)

            by utnow ( 808790 )
            The big point of the article isn't "wow they were herbivores". The point was that they were eating grass... along with other vegitation. If they're digestive tract (in this case, teeth) could handle the cellulose in other plant matter, then there's nothing too strange about them eating grass, aside from the part where we didn't know grass even existed durring this time period.... and that was from the summary! ;o)
        • Hold on there fella, don't go picking a fight where none was offered. I don't believe there is yet a consensus that dinosaurs are *NOT* reptiles. Some have speculated they share certain features with birds, but that doesn't mean they *ARE* all birds. Secondly, if grass was found in dino turd, doesn't it stand to reason their digestive system are adapted to handle the material? I merely meant it kind of neat to know such things despite not having any direct evidence for what the internal organs might be
          • Yes, dinosaurs are reptiles. Nobody has seriously proposed anything else. Rather, birds are dinosaurs and not the other way around. You don't classify earlier life forms on the basis of their descendants.

            BTW, isn't "grass-grazing dinosaurs" quite a tautology? I mean, what else can you graze than grass?
            • Certainly not in the sense that most people think of reptiles (snakes, lizards, etc). To say dinosaurs are (or rather, were) reptiles, you might as well also say that birds are reptiles and even that mammals are reptiles (descended, as they are, from mammal-like reptiles like cynognathus or dimetrodon, and indeed monotreme mammals still lay eggs).

              Indeed "dinosaur" itself is a rather vague catchall term, meaning anything from "any Jurrasic to Cretaceous animal not obviously a fish, bird or mammal" to its m
              • Thank you, I'm a paleontologist and I like formal terms. ;) Taxonomically, dinosaurs are reptiles, and the scientific definition of a dinosaur is "a reptile of the order Ornitischia or Saurischia". People used to think of whales as fish, since whales aren't mammals in the sense most people thought of mammals (cats, dogs, horses etc.).

                'Dinosaur' is an informal "vague catchall term" for laymen, who don't see a difference between a plesiosaur and a pterosaur, but let's stick to the scientific definition, sh
                • If you consider birds to be (even if via dinosaurs) reptiles, then clearly such minor physiological characteristics as endothermy vs exothermy don't enter into it. Sure, if you're just going by the number and location of holes in the skull, then dinosaurs (and thus birds) are reptiles.

                  But to most people -- and granted it's a lay definition -- a reptile isn't determined by the makeup of its skull but by being a vertebrate that is (a) cold blooded, (b) egg-laying and (c) more or less scaley (no hair or fea
          • "It's people like you and Russell Crowe that give the land down under a bad name."

            Yeah, telephone abuse is a real problem over here in the land of convicts.

            "be a good boy...at least *trying* to find a modern grass eating reptile"

            When I was a boy I had a "Blue tounge" lizard that ate egg & lettuce sandwiches, does that count? Cows and Caterpillers both eat grass, I doubt there digestive organs are the same or even similar.

            You missed the point of TFA, it is not about what animals ate grass, it
            • Yeah, telephone abuse is a real problem over here in the land of convicts.

              Ha! Quit the contrary, it seems maybe the telephone (industry) is doing the abusing [freehills.com.au].

              When I was a boy I had a "Blue tounge" lizard that ate egg & lettuce sandwiches, does that count? Cows and Caterpillers both eat grass, I doubt there digestive organs are the same or even similar.

              hmm.... Egg and lettuce sandwiches are hardly found in nature as a normal food source. I don't really know if you can consider cows and cat
              • "You do yourself credit for conducting yourself with a measure of civility in this discussion. I respect a person who responds to missunderstanding with reasonable discourse."

                ditto.

      • Re:You left them out :( (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Reziac ( 43301 ) * on Sunday November 20, 2005 @08:24AM (#14075002) Homepage Journal
        And how do they know that the grass doesn't come from the intestines of some critter that the dinosaur in question ate?

        But there are modern herbivorous reptiles (iguanas, tortises, others that don't come to mind at 5am). And there's no rule that says reptiles can't come in herbivore, omnivore, and carnivore versions, just like birds, fish, and mammals do.

        Oh, and beaver (rodent family) don't eat trees. They eat tree BARK, not the woody part. They cut down trees to get at the tender bark on the younger branches (and sometimes just girdle young trees, thus killing them). When beaver get overpopulated, they often effectively clearcut their home territory.

        • And how do they know that the grass doesn't come from the intestines of some critter that the dinosaur in question ate? Coming from a rudimentary understanding of paelontolgy, if a dinosaur with sharp, cutting teeth is found with grass in the stomach area, it would probably be assumed to have eaten a herbivore. TFA mentions that the droppings are of such a large size that they are assumed to be from a large sauropod, a type known to have the "gnashing, chewing" type of teeth exclusively.
          • True enough, and so sayeth TFA, tho by the time I entered the discussion, it had degenerated to generic arguments :)

            Many critters eat strange things sometimes, tho. Frex, horses love dry dog food, and will sometimes nibble carrion. And my dogs think watermelon rinds are candy. Makes you wonder. :)

        • The real point, as missed in this message, is that grass existed at the time of the dinos--as was not believed before.
        • You can generally identify a carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore by looking at the teeth, and when it comes to dinosaurs, that's something we have *plenty* of.
  • They'll find out that us hairless monkeys smoked grass!

  • I eat grass too!! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Prophetic_Truth ( 822032 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @03:35AM (#14074332)
    Tastes best in brownies.
  • Of course they had grass. Just look at the Land Before time XXXXXXXVVVVV. http://www.animationusa.com/picts/univpict/family. jpg [animationusa.com] (notice the pretty grass?)

    • Re:DUH! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by aussie_a ( 778472 )
      And this is where Slashdotters get their scientific information from. And slashdotters frequently post on Wikipedia. And people wonder why wikipedia isn't a trustworthy source of information.

  • Slashdot Logic (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Lifix ( 791281 )
    Science: Scientists find piece of grass in dinosaur dung.
    Slashdot: Grass Grazing Dinosaurs CONFIRMED!

    I'm glad that slashdot is prepared to make the leap from pieces of grass found in a pile of dung to active grazing by that animal.

    • Re:Slashdot Logic (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ozmanjusri ( 601766 )
      I'm glad that slashdot is prepared to make the leap from pieces of grass found in a pile of dung to active grazing by that animal.

      So what you're saying is that the grass might have climbed onto the poo pile and settled itself in there?

      Not a bad survival strategy, when you think about it.

      Dino pinches out a log, turns around for a ritual sneaky peek and sniff. Furrows brow, "Hmmm, I don't remember eating that". Shrugs shoulders, ambles off in search of less clever prey.

      Smart, that grass.

    • Yeah, it probably just ate something that was eating grass.

      KFG

      • Re:Slashdot Logic (Score:4, Insightful)

        by aussie_a ( 778472 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:20AM (#14074596) Journal
        Yeah, it probably just ate something that was eating grass.

        Scoff if you will, but this isn't that far-fetched. It wasconfirmed that grass existed when the dinosaurs were around. But it could have been a mammal (they existed when the dino's did) that ate the grass. However it was found in a titanosaur's (a herbivore) shit. They didn't go around munching on mammals.

    • Re:Slashdot Logic (Score:5, Informative)

      by volfro ( 915297 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @04:48AM (#14074531)
      From TFA:
      They sent some photographs and then samples to Stromberg, who spotted tiny silica structures called phytoliths.

      "It's indisputable that these are from grasses. The shape of these phytoliths indicate that they are from grasses," said Dolores Piperno...

      They didn't find whole blades. They found remnants from several different types of grasses. Which suggests to these paleontologists (not Slashdot) that 1: the dinosaurs ate grass; and 2: that the grass had been around for a long enough time to adapt and diversify.

      The scientists made the leap, not slashdot. RTFA.

    • As far as I know, this is quite a stunning discovery. Until recently, it was believed that grass only appeared a few million years ago. Not several tens of millions.
  • Personally, if there were a lot of trees in the past, I think that there would have been more than a lot of grass. And if there were leaf chomping dinos, there were grass chomping dinos too. Besides...Were stegosaurs intelligently capable enough to actually attempt to reach anything positioned higher than 1m above ground level?

  • Im confused (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by deft ( 253558 )
    so, does this mean there were dinosaurs?

    or is this how god planned?
    or perhaps, is this the devil planting stuff so we lose faith in god?

    crap, ima pray to the flying sphaghetti monster for guidance.

    ramen.

  • Wow... (Score:4, Funny)

    by RootsLINUX ( 854452 ) <rootslinuxNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday November 20, 2005 @03:58AM (#14074415) Homepage
    This discovery was made when scientists found pieces of grass in fossilized dinosaur dung (coprolites)

    Man, and I thought I had it tought digging through million year old crap (code) at work. I never imagined that would literally be someone's job >_>

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @04:01AM (#14074425)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • "Am I missing something?"

      Yes.

      KFG

    • Re:Huh?! o_0 (Score:2, Funny)

      by sleppy1 ( 903712 )
      It's hard to get grass to jump into a tar pit.
    • Yes, it is. Keep in mind that most plant fossils are merely imprints of the plant (or seeds or spores), which means that the mud/silt/ash had to dry and harden before the organic matter decomposed. For some types of plants this works because the outer skins are tougher (think bark or stalky plants). With grass, it's pretty much all soft material, meaning it will usually decompose before a good imprint can be made. Another side to this is that many fertile grass-growing regions are not exactly conducive to p

    • Re:Huh?! o_0 (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Bazzalisk ( 869812 )
      It's also possible that grass at that time was only common in a very limmited area and didn't spread accross the globe until later.

      Also bear this in mind - the fossil record is so incomplete that we have gaps in it millions of years in length during which we've found no fossils. In fact if we were all to die out tomorrow it's quite unlikely that any human fossils would survive in 65 million years time - that's how small an amount of time we've existed for on a geological scale.

    • Re:Huh?! o_0 (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Earth history does not consist of the succession: A) no plants, B) all modern plants.

      The order of appearance in Earth history goes more like:

      A) no land plants, B) spore plants, C) seed plants, D) flowering plants, E) grasses (which are a type of flowering plant)

      It takes a few hundred million years for that succession to play out (e.g., the earliest land plants known are based on spores from the latest Ordovician Period, which is over 400 million years ago, flowering plants don't show up until the Early Cret

  • Veggie Dinos (Score:4, Funny)

    by metlin ( 258108 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @04:04AM (#14074431) Journal
    Oooh!

    Even the dinosaurs in India are vegetarian! ;)

    (well, as an Indian who happens to be vegetarian, I reserve the right to make such obviously ridiculous jokes)
  • Hey don't carnivores like cats eat grass too to help with digestion

  • This confirms decade long theories (Score:4, Informative)

    by G3ckoG33k ( 647276 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @04:16AM (#14074464)
    I don't rememeber who came up with the original theory, but grass browsing in dinosaurs has been suspected for decades. For example the molar teeth in triceratops (and allies) and in the duck billed all are made for grass grinding, not those licking angiosperms which are much softer. Was it "wild and hairy ideas" Bakker who first proposed it?

  • Indirect Evidence? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by core plexus ( 599119 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @04:40AM (#14074512) Homepage
    My dog sometimes eats ground squirrels, mice, Moose, and other grass eaters. Sometimes, she even eats grass. My point is her stools contain grass, more often from the guts of the animals she eats.

    I understand that the point is that grass was not known to exist during this time, but I'm saying could the dinos just be eating grass eaters?

  • Duh (Score:2)

    by laxian ( 174575 )
    Of course there was grass. What else would they have had on their lawns back then? Stupid.
  • is it not? Cows have like, 4 stomachs (or something... i didn't do good in biology)

    Do they even know how many stomachs dinos had?
    • Horses have only "simple stomachs" and they eat grass. However, they're very inefficient compared to ruminants (cows, sheep) with their compound stomachs, where cud chewing (barf it up and rechew it later) and heftier bacteria do the actual work.

      If you compare horseshit and bullshit.. er, I mean horse manure and cow manure, the difference is obvious. Horse manure comes out not much different than the grass went in, other than being coarsely ground by the horse chewing on it -- but you can still tell it was
  • The weird thing is that the dinosaur in question found to eat grass was the T-Rex, deeply confusing both sides in the "vicious hunter or cowardly scavenger" argument.
  • a team of researchers found evidence in India that dinosaurs ate grass

    Excuse me, I think you meant to say our Intelligent Designer made it look like there were dinosaurs who ate grass. Sheesh. Didn't any of you attend science class?

  • How is it that they can find fossilized dung from the era, but not fossilized grass? Why would grass be exempt from fossilization when a lot of other stuff apparently isn't? Just wondering.
  • First Dinosaur: -Yo, man, look at this great grass, let's eat it.
    Second Dinosaur: -Oh, yeah, last time I had that stuff I felt weird, man, my paws became huge and for the whole day after that I was just sitting there, thinking about the meaning of existance. It was brilliant!
    F.D.: -Dude, that's some GOOD shit.
    COP Dinosaur: -Station, this is patrol 69, I've got a couple of junkie-sauruses here, send backup.
  • That's nothing.

    There's evidence of grass consumption by various species of dinosaurs [sony.com] in north [riaa.com] america [mpaa.org]. I'm not sure they eat it, though.
  • dinosaurs ate cows. But of course, since it's India, that evidence was suppressed.

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