Comments on: Nothronychus Raises Questions About Dino Diet

By: DM Kirwin

DM Kirwin — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 15:18:26 +0000

Any thought that it might have been an insect eater. That would explain the large claws and the fact it doesn’t have front teeth.

By: Dinosaur Treasures at the Utah Museum of Natural History | Dinosaur Tracking

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:14:15 +0000

[...] of the dinosaur hall contains some unusual displays. One features a dinosaur called Falcarius, a herbivorous relative of the “raptor” dinosaurs that was described in 2005 and may have been covered in a kind of feathery fuzz! To its right lies [...]

By: Michael Ogden Erickson

Michael Ogden Erickson — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:49:24 +0000

No friut in the Cretaceous? Whoa. I thought for sure there was some kind of primitive friut. Then again, my knowledge of Cretaceous plants and such is mostly crap, so…

By: Zach Miller

Zach Miller — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:51:19 +0000

No evidence of fruit in the Cretaceous yet, Mike. Now, there were primitive flowering plants, but then you’ve got a new question. What came first, fruit or flowers? Don’t know if that question’s been answered yet–you’d have to ask a botanist!

By: Michael Ogden Erickson

Michael Ogden Erickson — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:43:54 +0000

“It makes me wonder how many theropods may have been omnivorous, maybe not as a rule, but opprotunistically.”

I actually have a hard time beleiving that Tyrannosaurus rex woldn’t have eaten some fruit occasionally, as we now know crocodilians do.

By: Zach Miller

Zach Miller — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:42:32 +0000

The idea of a basally omnivorous Maniraptora is certainly interesting. It makes me wonder how many theropods may have been omnivorous, maybe not as a rule, but opprotunistically. Zanno & Co. don’t mention this in the paper (oddly), but alvarezsaurs were probably myrmecophageous, which is an extreme form of insectivory.