Where dinosaurs hung out?

Scientists have determined that different species of dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous period occupied different environments separated by just a few miles.

Hadrosaurs or duck-billed dinosaurs and small ornithopod Thescelosaurus, preferred to live along the edge of rivers, while Ceratopsians preferred to be several miles inland.


Tyler Lyson of Yale University and the Marmarth Research Foundation, along with Yale researcher Nicholas Longrich, analyzed more than 300 fossils representing more than half a dozen dinosaur species from Western Canada, Montana, Wyoming and surrounding areas.

They used what palaeontologists usually throw away when excavating the fossils as clues to where these different species spent most of their time.

Tyrannosaurs rex appears to have roamed both habitats, most likely feeding on large herbivores.

The study also shows that the dinosaurs had specialized eating habits and likely fed on different types of plants found in each environment.

"It also emphasizes the importance of recording data about the rock in which fossils are preserved, which can give us important clues as to the paleoecology of these animals.

Source: http://news.oneindia.in/

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