To understand
what extinct animals,
such as dinosaurs, ate,
we can compare their tooth
types to the range of
tooth types we see
with modern animals,
such as these
carnivorous and
herbivorous animals.
When we look at this tiger
skull we can look at aspects
of its
dentition, or its teeth,
to understand what it ate.
So when we look at
these pointed and
sharp teeth we can see
teeth that are very
well adapted for slicing
shearing and cutting flesh.
Unlike the tiger,
when we look at this
herbivorous animal, which is
a horse we can see that its
teeth are arranged in a
nice flat grinding surface and
so when the top
and lower teeth fit
together they actually
grind up plant material.
When we look at
fossils like this one here,
which belongs to an
allosaur, we can
see teeth that are
conical and re-curved
backwards, with sharp
points and serrated edges.
These kinds of
clues tell us that
this animal was a
meat-eating animal.
This fossil is the
jaw of a hadrosaur.
On this side you can
see many of its teeth.
When we turn it around you can
see a long flat
grinding surface.
By comparison we can infer
that this animal was also a
plant eater, just
like the horse that
showed us a very similar kind
of dentition. This animal
also ate plants and
other tough fibrous material.
There are other
kinds of clues.
This tooth, which belonged to a
sauropod dinosaur, shows
different kinds of wear along
its tip and along the sides.
When we look at
this under a microscope
we can identify pits
and scratches.
By comparing these
patterns with those
we see in modern
animals we can better
understand what
extinct animals ate.
Sometimes we have
direct evidence.
Here we have the fossilized
gut contents of
an animal called
Strobodon, which
is an extinct
dog-like relative.
When this fossil was
originally found, these
bones were found right
beneath its rib cage.
When we look at the bones
in detail, we can see they
belonged to an extinct
deer-like animal. Because
these bones are broken and
show evidence of
having been crushed by
sharp teeth, we can
infer that this was
Strobodon's last
meal. Unique fossils, like
this one, give us
rare and direct evidence
about what an
extinct animal ate.
In this case,
something much more common,
in the form of a
coprolite, which
is fossilized poop.
Although coprolites are
relatively common,
unfortunately we don't always
know what extinct
animal produced them.
In this case we can
look at the size
and shape of this
coprolite, which is
concentric and banded towards
one side, along with its
surface texture, where we
see small vertebrae that
belonged to a fish.
This provides us with
direct evidence that this
extinct animal ate fish.
These clues tell us that
the individual that produced
this coprolite might have
been a crocodile or a shark.
We rely on a lot of different
lines of evidence. That
includes inference,
comparisons with modern animals,
and occasionally direct
forms of evidence, to understand
what extinct animals ate.
