The largest dinosaurs to walk the Earth may have embarked on seasonal migrations that covered hundreds of kilometres when local watering holes dried up and food became scarce.
Evidence that giant sauropods set off on epic journeys came to light when scientists examined fossilised teeth recovered from the remains of beasts unearthed in Wyoming and Utah in the US.
The analysis of 32 teeth belonging to two species of Camarasaurus, among the most common sauropods found in North America, suggests the creatures migrated during hot, dry summers, from their usual habitats on flood plains in search of food and water in surrounding uplands.
Some return journeys required the dinosaurs to cover distances of around 300 kilometres (190 miles) in each …show more content…
Understanding the ranges and seasonal movements of the animals will help scientists piece together the role of migrations on Jurassic ecology and any bearing this had on the evolution of gigantism among dinosaurs.
"The question of how sauropods got to be so big is one that is still being actively studied. There's evidence that some of the reason is that they didn't have the dental morphology to chew their food, so in order to get enough energy their guts got bigger, and they did more processing in their stomachs," said Henry Fricke, head of geology at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, who led the study which is published in Nature.
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"Migration could come into the story of gigantism as a feedback process. Once they started to get big, it would be easier for them to migrate and get more food more consistently, which would help them to grow even more," he added. Moving long distances gets more energetically efficient the bigger strides a creature can take, so it would be highly inefficient for a mouse, for example, but much more efficient for a large
Evidence that giant sauropods set off on epic journeys came to light when scientists examined fossilised teeth recovered from the remains of beasts unearthed in Wyoming and Utah in the US.
The analysis of 32 teeth belonging to two species of Camarasaurus, among the most common sauropods found in North America, suggests the creatures migrated during hot, dry summers, from their usual habitats on flood plains in search of food and water in surrounding uplands.
Some return journeys required the dinosaurs to cover distances of around 300 kilometres (190 miles) in each …show more content…
Understanding the ranges and seasonal movements of the animals will help scientists piece together the role of migrations on Jurassic ecology and any bearing this had on the evolution of gigantism among dinosaurs.
"The question of how sauropods got to be so big is one that is still being actively studied. There's evidence that some of the reason is that they didn't have the dental morphology to chew their food, so in order to get enough energy their guts got bigger, and they did more processing in their stomachs," said Henry Fricke, head of geology at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, who led the study which is published in Nature.
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"Migration could come into the story of gigantism as a feedback process. Once they started to get big, it would be easier for them to migrate and get more food more consistently, which would help them to grow even more," he added. Moving long distances gets more energetically efficient the bigger strides a creature can take, so it would be highly inefficient for a mouse, for example, but much more efficient for a large