Bottom-Feeding Plesiosaurs

Title
Bottom-Feeding Plesiosaurs
Publication Date
2005-10-07
Author(s)
McHenry, Colin R
Cook, Alex G
Wroe, Stephen
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6365-5915
Email: swroe@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:swroe
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Place of publication
United States of America
DOI
10.1126/science.1117241
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/30766
Abstract
Elasmosaurid plesiosaurs were an important part of Cretaceous marine reptile communities and are generally considered to have been predators of small, agile, free-swimming fish and cephalopods. Two elasmosaurid specimens from Aptian and Albian deposits in Queensland, Australia, include fossilized gut contents dominated by benthic invertebrates: bivalves, gastropods, and crustaceans. Both specimens also contained large numbers of gastroliths (stomach stones). These finds point to a wider niche than has previously been supposed for these seemingly specialized predators and may also influence long-running controversy over the question of gastrolith function in plesiosaurs.
Link
Citation
Science, 310(5745), p. 75-75
ISSN
1095-9203
0036-8075
Pubmed ID
16210529
Start page
75
End page
75

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