Herbivorous dinosaurs ate and animal food
The idea that herbivorous dinosaurs followed a strict vegetarian diet questioned.
New evidence suggests that some dinosaurs also eat shellfish, insects and other foods of animal origin. Study of fossils shows that at certain times of the year hadrosaurus — dinosaurs-a duck — eating crabs.
The fossilized remains of the food of dinosaurs are rare, so animal diet, simply may not have met researchers in the past. The popular perception of the power of the dinosaurs was simplistic, says Dr. Karen Chin of the University of Colorado in boulder, USA, who led the research.
“Herbivorous dinosaurs followed a more complicated diet than we expected, including that they ate and the animals, at least, the crustaceans, and it was more like the power of modern plant-eating birds,” she said in an interview.
The evidence of such a diet was found on the plateau Kaiparowits in southern Utah, which is considered a treasure house of fossils of the late Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs were coming to the end of his reign.
Fragments of shells and other remnants show that hadrosaur ate crustaceans such as crabs, which are likely hiding in rotting wood.
Dinosaurs may especially hunted for crustaceans and insects, and not swallow them by accident, the researchers say. Products of animal origin may be an important source of protein, which is especially necessary during the period of oviposition.
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