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Therrien F, Zelenitsky DK, Tanaka K, Voris JT, Erickson GM, Currie PJ, DeBuhr CL, Kobayashi Y. Exceptionally preserved stomach contents of a young tyrannosaurid reveal an ontogenetic dietary shift in an iconic extinct predator. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadi0505. [PMID: 38064561 PMCID: PMC10846869 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi0505] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Accepted: 10/31/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023]
Abstract
Tyrannosaurids were large carnivorous dinosaurs that underwent major changes in skull robusticity and body proportions as they grew, suggesting that they occupied different ecological niches during their life span. Although adults commonly fed on dinosaurian megaherbivores, the diet of juvenile tyrannosaurids is largely unknown. Here, we describe a remarkable specimen of a juvenile Gorgosaurus libratus that preserves the articulated hindlimbs of two yearling caenagnathid dinosaurs inside its abdominal cavity. The prey were selectively dismembered and consumed in two separate feeding events. This predator-prey association provides direct evidence of an ontogenetic dietary shift in tyrannosaurids. Juvenile individuals may have hunted small and young dinosaurs until they reached a size when, to satisfy energy requirements, they transitioned to feeding on dinosaurian megaherbivores. Tyrannosaurids occupied both mesopredator and apex predator roles during their life span, a factor that may have been key to their evolutionary success.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Darla K. Zelenitsky
- Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Kohei Tanaka
- Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
| | - Jared T. Voris
- Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Gregory M. Erickson
- Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
| | - Philip J. Currie
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Christopher L. DeBuhr
- Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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Farlow JO, Coroian D, Currie PJ, Foster JR, Mallon JC, Therrien F. "Dragons" on the landscape: Modeling the abundance of large carnivorous dinosaurs of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation (USA) and the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation (Canada). Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2023; 306:1669-1696. [PMID: 35815600 DOI: 10.1002/ar.25024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2022] [Revised: 05/20/2022] [Accepted: 06/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Counts of the number of skeletal specimens of "adult" megaherbivores and large theropods from the Morrison and Dinosaur Park formations-if not biased by taphonomic artifacts-suggest that the big meat-eaters were more abundant, relative to the number of big plant-eaters, than one would expect on the basis of the relative abundance of large carnivores and herbivores in modern mammalian faunas. Models of megaherbivore population density (number of individuals per square kilometer) that attempt to take into account ecosystem productivity, the size structure of megaherbivore populations, and individual megaherbivore energy requirements, when combined with values of the large theropod/megaherbivore abundance ratio, suggest that large theropods may have been more abundant on the landscape than estimates extrapolated from the population density versus body mass relationship of mammalian carnivores. Models of the meat production of megaherbivore populations and the meat requirements of "adult" large theropods suggest that herbivore productivity would have been insufficient to support the associated number of individuals of "adult" large theropods, unless the herbivore production/biomass ratio was substantially higher, and/or the large theropod meat requirement markedly lower, than expectations based on modern mammals. Alternatively, or in addition to one or both of these other factors, large theropods likely included dinosaurs other than megaherbivores as significant components of their diet.
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Affiliation(s)
- James O Farlow
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA
| | - Dan Coroian
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA
| | - Philip J Currie
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - John R Foster
- Utah Field House of Natural History State Park, Vernal, Utah, USA
| | - Jordan C Mallon
- Beaty Centre for Species Discovery and Palaeobiology Section, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Wyenberg-Henzler T. Ecomorphospace occupation of large herbivorous dinosaurs from Late Jurassic through to Late Cretaceous time in North America. PeerJ 2022; 10:e13174. [PMID: 35433123 PMCID: PMC9009330 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.13174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2021] [Accepted: 03/06/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Following the Late Jurassic, megaherbivore communities in North America undergo a dramatic turnover in faunal composition: sauropods decline to the point of becoming relatively minor components of ecosystems, stegosaurs become extinct, and hadrosaurids, ceratopsids and ankylosaurs rise in diversity and abundance. Although a variety of causes have been proposed to account for the dramatic decrease in sauropod diversity following the Late Jurassic and could have also been applicable to the disappearance of stegosaurs, the potential for competitive replacement of sauropods by hadrosauroids as an explanation has been previously dismissed due to morphological differences without further investigation. Using twelve ecomorphological correlates of the skull, this study provides a preliminary investigation into ecomorphospace occupation of major megaherbivore clades from the Late Jurassic through to the Late Cretaceous of North America and assess if morphological differences were enough to have potentially facilitated dietary niche partitioning between sauropods and iguanodontians and stegosaurs and ankylosaurs. Overlap in reconstructed ecomorphospace was observed between sauropods (particularly non-diplodocid sauropods) and iguanodontians, as would be expected if morphological differences were not enough to facilitate niche partitioning, contrary to original claims used to dismiss the competitive replacement hypothesis. Overlap was also observed between stegosaurs and ankylosaurs, particularly between Late Cretaceous ankylosaurs. Whether this overlap is reflective competitive replacement or opportunistic occupation of recently vacated niches will require further assessment as sampling of some clades prior to the Late Cretaceous is too poor to make a reliable assessment and several underlying assumptions necessary for competition to occur (e.g., resource limitation) still need investigation. Teasing out the cause(s) of the 'sauropod decline' and extinction of stegosaurs in North America following the Late Jurassic will require future research not only into the competitive exclusion hypothesis, but other hypotheses as well with better sampling from Early Cretaceous and Late Jurassic intervals.
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Chiarenza AA, Mannion PD, Farnsworth A, Carrano MT, Varela S. Climatic constraints on the biogeographic history of Mesozoic dinosaurs. Curr Biol 2021; 32:570-585.e3. [PMID: 34921764 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.11.061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Revised: 11/15/2021] [Accepted: 11/24/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Dinosaurs dominated Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems globally. However, whereas a pole-to-pole geographic distribution characterized ornithischians and theropods, sauropods were restricted to lower latitudes. Here, we evaluate the role of climate in shaping these biogeographic patterns through the Jurassic-Cretaceous (201-66 mya), combining dinosaur fossil occurrences, past climate data from Earth System models, and habitat suitability modeling. Results show that, uniquely among dinosaurs, sauropods occupied climatic niches characterized by high temperatures and strongly bounded by minimum cold temperatures. This constrained the distribution and dispersal pathways of sauropods to tropical areas, excluding them from latitudinal extremes, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. The greater availability of suitable habitat in the southern continents, particularly in the Late Cretaceous, might be key to explaining the high diversity of sauropods there, relative to northern landmasses. Given that ornithischians and theropods show a flattened or bimodal latitudinal biodiversity gradient, with peaks at higher latitudes, the closer correspondence of sauropods to a subtropical concentration could hint at fundamental thermophysiological differences to the other two clades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza
- Grupo de Ecología Animal, Centro de Investigacion Mariña, Universidade de Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Marcosende, Vigo 36310, Spain; Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BP, UK; Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
| | - Philip D Mannion
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
| | - Alex Farnsworth
- School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol BS8 1RL, UK; State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Matthew T Carrano
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 121, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.
| | - Sara Varela
- Grupo de Ecología Animal, Centro de Investigacion Mariña, Universidade de Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Marcosende, Vigo 36310, Spain
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Schroeder K, Lyons SK, Smith FA. The influence of juvenile dinosaurs on community structure and diversity. Science 2021; 371:941-944. [PMID: 33632845 DOI: 10.1126/science.abd9220] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2020] [Accepted: 01/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Despite dominating biodiversity in the Mesozoic, dinosaurs were not speciose. Oviparity constrained even gigantic dinosaurs to less than 15 kg at birth; growth through multiple morphologies led to the consumption of different resources at each stage. Such disparity between neonates and adults could have influenced the structure and diversity of dinosaur communities. Here, we quantified this effect for 43 communities across 136 million years and seven continents. We found that megatheropods (more than 1000 kg) such as tyrannosaurs had specific effects on dinosaur community structure. Although herbivores spanned the body size range, communities with megatheropods lacked carnivores weighing 100 to 1000 kg. We demonstrate that juvenile megatheropods likely filled the mesocarnivore niche, resulting in reduced overall taxonomic diversity. The consistency of this pattern suggests that ontogenetic niche shift was an important factor in generating dinosaur community structure and diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katlin Schroeder
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
| | - S Kathleen Lyons
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA
| | - Felisa A Smith
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
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CODRON J, AVENANT NL, WIGLEY-COETSEE C, CODRON D. Carnivore stable carbon isotope niches reflect predator-prey size relationships in African savannas. Integr Zool 2018; 13:166-179. [DOI: 10.1111/1749-4877.12290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jacqueline CODRON
- Mammalogy Department; National Museum; Bloemfontein South Africa
- Florisbad Quaternary Research Department; National Museum; Bloemfontein South Africa
| | - Nico L AVENANT
- Mammalogy Department; National Museum; Bloemfontein South Africa
- Centre for Environmental Management; University of the Free State; Bloemfontein South Africa
| | - Corli WIGLEY-COETSEE
- Scientific Services; SANParks Skukuza South Africa
- School of Natural Resource Management; Nelson Mandela University; George Campus South Africa
| | - Daryl CODRON
- Florisbad Quaternary Research Department; National Museum; Bloemfontein South Africa
- Centre for Environmental Management; University of the Free State; Bloemfontein South Africa
- Institute for Geosciences, Palaeontology/Sclerochronology Research Group; Johannes Gütenberg University; Mainz Germany
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Herbivores increase the global availability of nutrients over millions of years. Nat Ecol Evol 2017; 1:1820-1827. [DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0341-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2016] [Accepted: 09/05/2017] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Codron J, Botha-Brink J, Codron D, Huttenlocker AK, Angielczyk KD. Predator-prey interactions amongst Permo-Triassic terrestrial vertebrates as a deterministic factor influencing faunal collapse and turnover. J Evol Biol 2016; 30:40-54. [DOI: 10.1111/jeb.12983] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2015] [Revised: 08/26/2016] [Accepted: 09/21/2016] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- J. Codron
- Karoo Palaeontology Department; National Museum; Bloemfontein South Africa
| | - J. Botha-Brink
- Karoo Palaeontology Department; National Museum; Bloemfontein South Africa
- Department of Zoology and Entomology; University of the Free State; Bloemfontein South Africa
| | - D. Codron
- Florisbad Quaternary Research Department; National Museum; Bloemfontein South Africa
- Centre for Environmental Management; University of the Free State; Bloemfontein South Africa
| | - A. K. Huttenlocker
- Department of Cell and Neurobiology; Keck School of Medicine of USC; Los Angeles CA USA
| | - K. D. Angielczyk
- Integrative Research Center; Field Museum of Natural History; Chicago IL USA
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Kane A, Healy K, Ruxton GD, Jackson AL. Body Size as a Driver of Scavenging in Theropod Dinosaurs. Am Nat 2016; 187:706-16. [DOI: 10.1086/686094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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Procheş S, Polgar G, Marshall DJ. K-Pg events facilitated lineage transitions between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Biol Lett 2015; 10:rsbl.2014.0010. [PMID: 24919699 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2014.0010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
We use dated phylogenetic trees for tetrapod vertebrates to identify lineages that shifted between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in terms of feeding or development, and to assess the timing of such events. Both stem and crown lineage ages indicate a peak in transition events in correspondence with the K-Pg mass extinction. This meets the prediction that changes in competitive pressure and resource availability following mass extinction events should facilitate such transitions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Serban Procheş
- Discipline of Geography, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville Campus, PO Box X54001, Durban 4000, South Africa Environmental and Life Sciences Programme, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Jalan Tungku Link 1410, Brunei Darussalam
| | - Gianluca Polgar
- Environmental and Life Sciences Programme, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Jalan Tungku Link 1410, Brunei Darussalam
| | - David J Marshall
- Environmental and Life Sciences Programme, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Jalan Tungku Link 1410, Brunei Darussalam
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Sander PM. An evolutionary cascade model for sauropod dinosaur gigantism--overview, update and tests. PLoS One 2013; 8:e78573. [PMID: 24205267 PMCID: PMC3812984 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2013] [Accepted: 09/20/2013] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Sauropod dinosaurs are a group of herbivorous dinosaurs which exceeded all other terrestrial vertebrates in mean and maximal body size. Sauropod dinosaurs were also the most successful and long-lived herbivorous tetrapod clade, but no abiological factors such as global environmental parameters conducive to their gigantism can be identified. These facts justify major efforts by evolutionary biologists and paleontologists to understand sauropods as living animals and to explain their evolutionary success and uniquely gigantic body size. Contributions to this research program have come from many fields and can be synthesized into a biological evolutionary cascade model of sauropod dinosaur gigantism (sauropod gigantism ECM). This review focuses on the sauropod gigantism ECM, providing an updated version based on the contributions to the PLoS ONE sauropod gigantism collection and on other very recent published evidence. The model consist of five separate evolutionary cascades ("Reproduction", "Feeding", "Head and neck", "Avian-style lung", and "Metabolism"). Each cascade starts with observed or inferred basal traits that either may be plesiomorphic or derived at the level of Sauropoda. Each trait confers hypothetical selective advantages which permit the evolution of the next trait. Feedback loops in the ECM consist of selective advantages originating from traits higher in the cascades but affecting lower traits. All cascades end in the trait "Very high body mass". Each cascade is linked to at least one other cascade. Important plesiomorphic traits of sauropod dinosaurs that entered the model were ovipary as well as no mastication of food. Important evolutionary innovations (derived traits) were an avian-style respiratory system and an elevated basal metabolic rate. Comparison with other tetrapod lineages identifies factors limiting body size.
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Affiliation(s)
- P. Martin Sander
- Steinmann Institute of Geology, Mineralogy and Paleontology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
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