Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T14:08:03.589Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The roles of herbivory and omnivory in early dinosaur evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2011

Paul M. Barrett
Affiliation:
Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK Email: p.barrett@nhm.ac.uk
Richard J. Butler
Affiliation:
Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Richard-Wagner-Straße 10, 80333 Munich, Germany Email: butler.richard.j@gmail.com
Sterling J. Nesbitt
Affiliation:
Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, TX 78712, USA Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, USA Email: nesbitt@jsg.utexas.edu

Abstract

Herbivorous and omnivorous dinosaurs were rare during the Carnian stage of the Late Triassic. By contrast, the succeeding Norian stage witnessed the rapid diversification of sauropodomorphs and the rise of the clade to ecological dominance. Ornithischians, by contrast, remained relatively rare components of dinosaur assemblages until much later in the Mesozoic. The causes underlying the differential success of ornithischians and sauropodomorphs remain unclear, but might be related to trophic specialisation. Sauropodomorphs replaced an established herbivore guild consisting of rhynchosaurs, aetosaurs and basal synapsids, but this faunal turnover appears to have been opportunistic and cannot be easily attributed to either competitive interactions or responses to floral change. Consideration of diversity patterns and relative abundance suggests that the ability to eat plants might have been a major factor promoting sauropodomorph success, but that it was less important in the early evolution of Ornithischia. On the basis of current evidence it is difficult to determine the diet of the ancestral dinosaur and scenarios in which omnivory or carnivory represent the basal condition appear equally likely.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)
Supplementary material: PDF

Barrett supplementary material

Appendix.pdf

Download Barrett supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 38.1 KB