What was the purpose of the extra teeth the sauropods had?
He wondered: Why the shift? Sauropods didn’t actually chew their salad — they clipped it off with their teeth and then swallowed it whole. Perhaps having teeth turn over faster kept them fresh for the hard work of cutting vegetation off trees or bushes, D’Emic said.
Why did Brachiosaurus have sharp teeth?
These dinosaur teeth are sharp, pointed and slightly curved specifically made to tear flesh and crush bones. They merely rip chunks of flesh and meat from their prey and swallow it whole. The teeth of this Brachiosaurus are rounded, peg-like and act like a rake.
Did sauropods have weak teeth?
For sauropods to have highly-resistant, long-lasting teeth – like those of horses or elephants – their teeth would have required a major reorganization in their microscopic construction. The easier evolutionary option was to simply make lots and lots of small, relatively poor-quality teeth that were regularly replaced.
Is a Camarasaurus a dinosaur?
Camarasaurus is one of the most common sauropods (long-necked dinosaurs) of the Jurassic. Both adult and juvenile Camarasaurus bones have been found at Dinosaur. A juvenile, nearly complete and articulated-meaning that most of the bones were discovered in life position-is the most complete sauropod skeleton ever found.
What do sauropods look like?
Sauropods were herbivorous (plant-eating), usually quite long-necked quadrupeds (four-legged), often with spatulate (spatula-shaped: broad at the tip, narrow at the neck) teeth. They had tiny heads, massive bodies, and most had long tails. The proximal caudal vertebrae are extremely diagnostic for sauropods.
How tall is a Camarasaurus?
Description: Although Camarasaurus is considered a “smaller” sauropod dinosaur, it was still between 50-65 feet (15-20 meters) long, 15-25 feet (4.5-7.5 meters) tall, and may have weighed up to 20 tons (18,143 kilograms)! It had a small, square-shaped head and short round snout.
Who discovered the Camarasaurus?
The Camarasaurus was first discovered in 1877 by Oramel W. Lucas, and later named by Edward Drinker Cope. However, these discoveries were of only a few fragments and a complete skeleton was discovered in 1925 by Charles W. Gilmore.
Did dinosaurs have beaks?
Beaks are already known in many other dinosaur groups—including Triceratops, Stegosaurus, duck-billed hadrosaurs, and dome-headed Pachycephalosaurus—as the bony bases of the beaks are preserved in fossils.
What plants did Camarasaurus eat?
Camarasaurus was an herbivore (it ate only plants). It must have eaten a tremendous amount of plant material each day to sustain itself. It swallowed leaves whole, without chewing them, and may have swallowed gastroliths (gizzard stones) to help digest tough plant fibers, like fern leaves and conifers .
What did the Camarasaurus look like?
Where was the Camarasaurus found?
Camarasaurus was a herbivore. It lived in the Jurassic period and inhabited North America. Its fossils have been found in places such as Utah, Nebraska and New Mexico. Camarasaurus was the most common sauropod to be found in North America.
