Page 35 - Dinosaur (DK Eyewitness Books)

GUT AND GIZZARD
A theropod’s digestive system
probably resembled that of
a crocodile. Digestive juices
dissolved meat and even bones
inside the gut. The dinosaur may Bone
have swallowed stones to aid in fragments
breaking up food in a muscular of prey
organ called the gizzard. Meat has
less fiber and more concentrated
nourishment than plants, making it
easier to digest (break down) than
leafy vegetation. A theropod’s gut
was therefore relatively shorter
and simpler than a plant-eater’s.
DINOSAUR DROPPINGS
Gizzard Intestine Scientists study the coprolites (fossil droppings)
of large theropods to discover what animals
these carnivorous dinosaurs ate. They look
for the undigested scraps of victims’ bones
Muscular back
that were swallowed with their flesh.
Comparing thin slices of these bones
with those of known types of
dinosaur helps in identifying the
Balancing tail prey. Scientists examined the
tyrannosaur dropping shown
here and discovered that it
contains the remains of either
a horned or a duck-billed dinosaur.

Long jaws

Slender tooth

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Baryonyx’s long, narrow skull looks like that of a
fish-eating crocodile, with slender, pointed teeth
superbly shaped to grip large, slippery, wriggling fish.
Scientists even found a fossil of a big fish in the rib
cage of one Baryonyx fossil. This theropod belonged
to a group of fish-eating dinosaurs called spinosaurids.

Strong leg

Bony prong

A TOOTHLESS HUNTER
Citipati’s strong jaws ended in a toothless, horny
beak, but two sharp, bony prongs stuck out from the
roof of its mouth. These may have helped to smash
swallowed eggs. Perhaps this oviraptorid (“egg thief”)
dinosaur ate eggs of other dinosaurs. However, to
date, eggs that have been found with fossils of
oviraptorids have turned out to be their own.