Daily Dino Fact: Sauropods vs. Plants
MMmmm... delicious gymnosperms
Q: OK Sauropods had to eat a lot of vegetation if they lived in groups. Were the trees and bushes bigger to supply the dinosaurs needs? Were there dino-trees? -Morty
A: Really great question Morty. The answer isn’t quite what you think. If some paleontologists are to be believed, dinosaurs were warm-blooded animals. This means they had to eat a ton of food. You’d think that crews of sauropods were roaming around the Mesozoic just destroying everything in their path. While this was probably true, they got away with it because animal and plant life was actually more sparse than it is today. There just weren’t as many dinosaurs around, so what damage the sauropods did wasn’t too bad because there weren’t very many of them.
The Mesozoic was a very different landscape than the one we have today. For most of the Mesozoic, plant life consisted entirely of gymnosperms. Gymnosperms are seed-bearing plants like ginkgos, ferns, cycads and conifers. Up until the end of the Jurassic, conifers were the most dominant plants around. It was at the end of the Jurassic that we finally started to see what we call angiosperms, which are the flowering pants we know and love today. It is a safe bet that sauropods munched down on all of these delicious veggies!
To address a couple other questions….
Q: What is the fattest dinosaur ever?i wanna know. -Faiththethird. Answer here.
Q: What was the smallest dinosaur? this question has been bugging me please answer. -Iamrich. Answer here.
Q: Were there any bioluminescent dinosaurs? (which means they glow up :P) - Hornstrkier. A: I could not find any information at all about this. Let me know if you find anything differently!
-Rex
Tags: Daily Dino Fact, Dinosaurs, sauropods, webosaurs
January 20th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
i was looking so hard for your q hornstrkier but couldnt find it
-aquatica
January 20th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
wow no information?? I’m going to look that up…
January 20th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Is Pterry an “official” dinosaur? Or in this case, what kind of dinosaur is Pterry? -Screechie
Hmm pretty cool. It’s hard to believe that Dinosaurs were warm-blooded. I thought only Mammals are warm-blooded.
January 20th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Thanks Rex! This may explain why I like conifer salads. XD
My next question is what was the weather like in the Mesozoic? Did it have different seasons like spring summer fall and winter? Was the Jurassic weather different from the Mesozoic?
January 20th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
my question is were do i put the art now? oh and by the way my name is lula
January 20th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
screechie, to answer ur question there pterry is a dino that was called pterrosaur.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
What is dinosaur with the weirdest tooth ever? is it incisivosaurus on prehistoric park 3? -Irvine
Irvine
January 21st, 2010 at 7:29 pm
screechie, it is not a dinosaur it is a pterradactoyl
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:35 pm
What was the smallest tyrannosaur?