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Mamalia dinosaurus pengunyah meninggalkan tanda gigi tertua yang dikenal
Dinosaur-chewing mammals leave behind oldest known tooth marks
Date:
June 17,
2010
Source:
Yale University
Summary:
Paleontologists have discovered the oldest mammalian
tooth marks yet on the bones of ancient animals, including several large
dinosaurs.
.............................
Paleontologists have discovered the oldest mammalian tooth
marks yet on the bones of ancient animals, including several large dinosaurs.
They report
their findings in a paper published online June 16 in the journal Paleontology.
Nicholas
Longrich of Yale University and Michael J. Ryan of the Cleveland Museum of
Natural History came across several of the bones while studying the collections
of the University of Alberta Laboratory for Vertebrate Palaeontology and the Royal
Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. They also found additional bones displaying
tooth marks during fieldwork in Alberta, Canada. The bones are all from the
Late Cretaceous epoch and date back about 75 million years.
The pair
discovered tooth marks on a femur bone from a Champsosaurus, an aquatic
reptile that grew up to five feet long; the rib of a dinosaur, most likely a
hadrosaurid or ceratopsid; the femur of another large dinosaur that was likely
an ornithischian; and a lower jaw bone from a small marsupial.
The
researchers believe the marks were made by mammals because they were created by
opposing pairs of teeth -- a trait seen only in mammals from that time. They
think they were most likely made by multituberculates, an extinct order of
archaic mammals that resemble rodents and had paired upper and lower incisors.
Several of the bones display multiple, overlapping bites made along the curve
of the bone, revealing a pattern similar to the way people eat corn on the cob.
The animals
that made the marks were about the size of a squirrel and were most likely
gnawing on the bare bones for minerals rather than for meat, said Longrich.
"The bones were kind of a nutritional supplement for these animals."
There are
likely many other instances of mammalian tooth marks on other bones that have
yet to be identified, including older examples, said Longrich. "The marks
stood out for me because I remember seeing the gnaw marks on the antlers of a
deer my father brought home when I was young," he said. "So when I
saw it in the fossils, it was something I paid attention to."
But he
points out that the Late Cretaceous creatures that chewed on these bones were
not nearly as adept at gnawing as today's rodents, which developed that ability
long after dinosaurs went extinct.
Story
Source:
The above
story is based on materials provided by Yale University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal
Reference:
- Nicholas R. Longrich, Michael J. Ryan. Mammalian tooth marks on the bones of dinosaurs and other Late Cretaceous vertebrates. Paleontology, 2010; DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00957.x
