CT scans have revealed the diet of a
prehistoric creature
that once measured eight feet long and lived in Australian waters during the time of the dinosaurs.
A team of scientists from The Australian National University and the Australian Museum Research Institute were able to access the remains of the fossilized stomach of a small marine reptile,
a plesiosaur nicknamed "Eric"
after a song by the comedy group Monty Python, to determine what the creature ate. creature before his death.
The researchers were able to find
17 previously undescribed fish vertebrae
within Eric's gut, confirming that the plesiosaur's diet consisted primarily of
fish
, reinforcing findings from earlier studies conducted in 2006.
The findings could help scientists learn more about the evolutionary history of extinct organisms like Eric, as well as help predict what the future of our marine life might look like.
Reproduction of a plesiosaur that lived 200 million years ago.
According to the researchers, the study demonstrates the potential of
using X-rays
to reconstruct the diets of other extinct organisms that inhabited Earth hundreds of millions of years ago.
"Previous studies examined the outer surface of Eric's opalized skeleton for clues," said PhD researcher Joshua White, from the ANU and AMRI Research School of Physics.
"But this approach can be difficult and limiting, as fossilized stomach contents are rare to find, and there may be more lurking below the surface that would be nearly impossible for paleontologists to see without destroying the fossil.
"We believe our study is the first in Australia to use X-rays to study the intestinal contents of a prehistoric marine reptile. Our research used very powerful X-rays to help us see the animal's stomach contents in never-before-seen detail, including the finding
fish bones
in his intestine.
Eric was discovered in the Coober Pedy opal mines in South Australia in 1987.
"The benefit of using X-rays to study these prehistoric animals is that it doesn't damage the fossil, which is incredibly important when dealing with valuable and delicate specimens like Eric."
White reviewed mountains of data and CT images to differentiate between what he believed to be evidence of fish bones, gastroliths, also known as stomach stones, and other material that the reptile had consumed.
The data was used to create a 3D model of Eric's intestinal contents.
I ate fish like a sea lion
"Eric was a mid-level predator, sort of the equivalent of
a sea lion,
eating small fish and probably being preyed on by larger predators," White said.
"We are also lucky in that Eric is one of the most complete opalized vertebral skeletons in Australia. The fossil is approximately 93 per cent complete
,
which is virtually unknown in any fossil record. There is virtually no other place apart from Australia that can obtain fossils of opalized vertebrae".
The ANU scientists say that learning more about the diet of extinct organisms is an important step in understanding their evolutionary past, but it can also help us understand how animals alive today might be affected by things like climate change.
Eric is on display at the Australian Museum in Sydney.
"As environments change, so does a marine reptile's diet and understanding these changes can be used to help predict how today's animals will respond to current and emerging climate challenges," White said.
"If there is some change in an animal's diet, we want to see why this change happened, and to some extent we can compare it to modern animals, like dolphins or whales, and try to predict how their diets might change because of the change." climate change and why.
Eric was discovered in the Coober Pedy opal mines in South Australia
in 1987
.
The prehistoric predator is on display at the Australian Museum in Sydney.
Europa Press Agency.
look too
The "Grandfather", the 2600-year-old Argentine tree that is still standing
look too
She went to the hospital to have an operation on her uterus and they amputated her arm
look too
They believed sunlight was a food source and starved their baby
GML