Eating variedly and adapting to the supply is likely one of the secrets behind the dinosaurs' success through evolution. This is revealed when, among other things, Swedish researchers have studied the inner parts of fossilized feces – coprolites – from dinosaurs.
We have discovered that there was a lot of "trial and error" among the early dinosaurs. They tested everything from eating bones to get to marrow and salts to munching on insects or a variety of plants, says Martin Qvarnström, researcher at the Department of Organismal Biology and the study's lead author.
Hundreds of samples
The researchers have focused on an area in southern Poland that was previously relatively unexplored and on the first 30 million years of the dinosaurs' evolution in the new study.
In total, they have examined hundreds of samples using advanced computed tomography to study the coprolites in detail. They have, among other things, managed to find remains of fish, insects, larger animals, and plants. The results have been published in the journal Nature.
Previously, paleontologists have mostly focused on fossil skeletons and perhaps collected coprolites mostly as a joke. But there is enormous potential in studying their contents, and there was a lot that surprised us, says Martin Qvarnström.
Eating charcoal
One such discovery was that coprolites from the first large plant-eating dinosaurs, among other things, contained large amounts of tree fern spores and charcoal. The researchers believe that the dinosaurs ate charcoal to remove toxins from their digestive contents, since ferns can be toxic to herbivores.
By combining the new information from the coprolites with climate data and information about other fossils, such as plants, bite marks, vomit, footprints, and bones, the researchers have also created a comprehensive picture of the ecosystems during the Triassic and Jurassic periods. This means a time period from around 230 to 200 million years ago.
