tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post3656746655897884134..comments2024-03-28T02:45:03.204-07:00Comments on Antediluvian Salad: Ankylosaurs Are Still WeirdDuane Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14467779935085970909noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post-91884220632593237872013-06-14T22:26:36.800-07:002013-06-14T22:26:36.800-07:00Good points.
I have thought about possible lines ...Good points.<br /> I have thought about possible lines of evidence of nest raiding/coprophagy for ankylosaurs including the ones you mentioned. I can't find any references to lags (lines of arrested growth) in ankylosaurs. The issue with parasites is one I have considered- maybe the greatly expanded torso of ankylosaurs could deal with relatively toxic stuff like parasites, bacteria, fungi etc.<br /><br />As you, or anyone else who reads this blog for that matter, probably notices- I do venture heavily into speculative conjecture- but maybe some type of line of evidence will come about some day that bolsters my ideas or disproves them.<br /><br />For me the issues with ankylosaurs that suggest they were up to some weird stuff were the seemingly underdeveloped dentition, even in dry habitats, olfactory abilitieis, tongue musculature and the ubiquitous yet rare occurrence of these taxa. Horner 2011 found Ankylosaurus- the most famed type- to account for about 1% of the Hell Creek fauna. For these reasons I think that some of these beasts were up to some stuff not typical of mega-herbivores.<br /><br />Its also interesting that various south american notosuchids/terrestrial crocs may have been filling some of the same ecological roles there-where ankylosaurs were absent or very sparsely distributed.Duane Nashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14467779935085970909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post-83118742296669482982013-06-14T17:01:23.458-07:002013-06-14T17:01:23.458-07:00At a guess, there are two bits of evidence that wo...At a guess, there are two bits of evidence that would bolster this case: bones and coprolites.<br /><br />If <i>Tarchia</i> was raiding nesting-grounds, that is presumably a seasonal resource. Xeric environments are lush only during the wet season, so nest predators would presumably gorge during the wet season, and fast during the dry season. One would expect their bones to therefore show a strong seasonal signal, with banded growth patterns. <br /><br />Additionally coprophagy has one danger that the dinosaur is picking up a lot of parasites from the dinosaur poop. It would have to have a cast-iron digestive system to deal with this, but still, I'd expect them to be more parasitized, on average, than were the dinosaurs they were scavenging. Some parasites leave osteological traces, so if it turns out that anklyosaur bones, on average, should more damage than did those of herbivores in the same fossil deposit, this would be indirect evidence that they were coprophages.<br /><br />Finally, if anyone finds Tarchia dung (presumably preserved in situ), they need to do an analysis of what it contains. Hadrosaur dung does contain fungal spores, so coprolites can be counted on to contain a lot of information.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com