Home >> Science & Nature >> Animals & Science

Dinosaurs That Ate Plants & Meat

Scientists usually classify a dinosaur as a meat eater or a plant eater from the type of teeth found with the specimen. As an example, the Tyrannosaurus Rex has sharp, serrated teeth suited for biting through flesh and bone. Logically, this well known dinosaur is classified as a meat eater. The brontosaurus, an oversized plant eater with a long neck and legs the size of tree trunks, had peg like teeth suitable for grinding and crushing plants. But there is evidence that reveals that certain dinosaurs ate both.

Asilisaurus Kongwe
- Dinosaurs may have roamed the earth for much longer than scientists previously thought. The Asilisaurus kongwe was discovered in a bone bed in Tanzania, Africa, and dates back to the Triassic period. The animal lived more than ten million years earlier than dinosaurs previously discovered. The first specimen was found in 2003; since that time, scientists from the Field Museum in Chicago, the Utah Museum of Natural History and other institutions have been studying the fossil remains. These animals are now considered silesaurs and ancestors to the dinosaurs. These animals are thought to be omnivorous, eating both meat and plants, because of their triangular-shaped teeth and a birdlike beak tip on the lower jaw. These animals walked on all fours and were long but slender. They weighed between 22 and 66 pounds and measured as much as ten feet long. Asilisaurus grew to about three feet tall at the hip. Scientists were able to make these calculations because they were able to recover fossils from 14 different specimens in Tanzania.
Heterodontosaurus: The Different-toothed Dinosaur
- Scientists believe that the turkey-sized heterodontosaurus ate both plants and meat. The skull, originally discovered in the 1960s but not identified as a dinosaur until 2008, showed fangs in the front of the jaw and flat, grinding type teeth in the back. This animal could grasp and tear flesh and chew up plants. The heterodontosaurus lived about 180 million years ago and is thought to be part of the transitional phase in dinosaurs, when some meat eaters were gradually changing to plant eaters. This animal was a member of the ornithischian dinosaur family, from which birds are thought to have evolved. The debate is still going strong on that point.
Falcarius Utahensis
- Specimens of this feathered dinosaur were found south of Green River, Utah. It was very birdlike in appearance and lived about 125 million years ago. Paleontologists believe this animal is one of the missing links from when some carnivores were transitioning into herbivores. Falcarius had lost the large incisors used by meat eaters but still had five-inch claws capable of tearing flesh. It was just starting to develop the larger belly of the plant-eating dinosaurs. James Kirkland, a state paleontologist from Utah, and Thomas R. Holtz from the University of Maryland both believe the animal was quick enough to hunt and catch small game. Falcarius measured 12 feet from nose to tail and was three feet high at the hip.

Animals & Science