See inside the heads of the biggest dinosaurs ever

[Nipuna]

dn26347-1_450[1].gif (874.18 KiB) Viewed 2830 times

Giant sauropod dinosaurs like this Camarasaurus and its cousin the Diplodocus had to stuff their faces just to survive. Species often coexisted in the same area and compared with their bodies, their heads are tiny, so it has been a bit of a mystery how they could eat enough food to support their huge bodies, which stretched to 26 metres long in the case of the biggest ever, Dreadnoughtus.

Now David Button and his colleagues at the University of Bristol, UK, have discovered what these mega-dinos had for dinner by digitally reconstructing their skulls and muscles – on the basis of traces left on the bones where they were attached in life.

In the image above, the various bones of a Camarasaurus skull are shown in different colours, and the image below shows the layers of muscle.

dn26347-2_1767[1].jpg (107.89 KiB) Viewed 2830 times

The results not only reveal what was on the menu, but how the huge vegetarians managed to live side by side with only limited resources.

In places such as the Morrison Formation in central North America, more than 10 similar species have been found living in the same area.

Camarasaurus and Diplodocus survived by focusing on different sections of the salad bar, says Button. "Camarasaurus had a robust skull and strong bite, which would have allowed it to feed on tough leaves and branches. Meanwhile, the weaker bite and more delicate skull of Diplodocus would have restricted it to softer foods like ferns," he says.

This specialisation may have helped the sauropods gather enough food to survive – despite not even being able to chew.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2114