Add your Article
- Chemistry and Materials
- Butterfly Wings and Waterproof Coats
- Big Machine Reveals Small Worlds
- Bang, Sparkle, Burst, and Boom
- E Learning Jamaica
- Results of GSAT are in schools this week
- 2014 GSAT Results for Jamaican Kids
- E Learning in Jamaica WIN PRIZES and try our Fun Animated Games
- Finding the Past
- Decoding a Beverage Jar
- If Only Bones Could Speak
- Stone Tablet May Solve Maya Mystery
- GSAT Exam Preparation Jamaica
- Tarrant High overcoming the odds
- E Learning in Jamaica WIN PRIZES and try our Fun Animated Games
- GSAT stars reap scholarship glory
- GSAT Exams Jamaica Scholarships
- GSAT Practice Papers | GSAT Mathematics | Maths
- GSAT Exam Preparation
- GSAT stars reap scholarship glory
- GSAT Mathematics
- GSAT Mathematics Quiz, Teaching Math, teaching anxiety
- It's a Math World for Animals
- Deep-space dancers
- Space and Astronomy
- A Very Distant Planet Says "Cheese"
- Holes in Martian moon mystery
- Gravity Tractor as Asteroid Mover
Dino Bite Leaves a Tooth
Published: 07/01/2010
As the star of Jurassic Park III, the spinosaurus dominated the screen, displaying a huge sail on its back and baring distinctive teeth. Millions of years ago, this large, meat-eating dinosaur may have hunted fish. Its long snout and narrow jaws resemble those of modern, fish-eating crocodiles. Now, it looks like fish weren't the only animals on the spinosaur menu. Paleontologists from France recently uncovered fossil evidence in northeastern Brazil that spinosaurs also may have feasted on flying reptiles. The scientists found three fossil neck bones, buried in rocks that are about 100 million years old. One of the bones had a piece of a tooth sticking out of it. The neck bones belonged to an ancient flying reptile called a pterosaur. The animal was probably about 3.3 meters long from wingtip to wingtip. The tooth fragment found in its neck was about 1 centimeter long. It was shaped like a cone, and its enamel coating was smooth and thin. Based on these features, the researchers suggest that the tooth belonged to a type of spinosaur called Irritator challengeri. This spinosaur typically grew to be 10 meters long, walked on two feet, and ate meat. Paleontologists had previously found remains of fish scales in the stomachs of ancient spinosaurs. And some researchers had unearthed a spinosaur that apparently had eaten parts of a young plant-eating dino. The new finding shows that flying reptiles were also on the menu. The researchers still don't know if the spinosaur killed the pterosaur or just chomped on one that was already dead. Either way, the predator probably didn't mind losing a bit of tooth. Spinosaurs were constantly replacing their teeth.—E. Sohn
Dino Bite Leaves a Tooth
