IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v402y1999i6761d10.1038_44999.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Herbivorous diet in an ornithomimid dinosaur

Author

Listed:
  • Yoshitsugu Kobayashi

    (Southern Methodist University)

  • Jun-Chang Lu

    (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica)

  • Zhi-Ming Dong

    (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica)

  • Rinchen Barsbold

    (Geological Institute, Mongolian Academy of Sciences)

  • Yoichi Azuma

    (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica
    Fukui Prefectural Museum)

  • Yukimitsu Tomida

    (National Science Museum)

Abstract

In 1997, twelve well-articulated skeletons of an ornithomimid dinosaur1 from the Upper Cretaceous Ulansuhai Formation2 in China were discovered. Each skeleton contained a preserved gastrolith mass inside the ribcage that was attached on the medial surface of the articulated dorsal ribs and gastralia. The occurrence and characteristics of gastrolith masses in this ornithomimid indicate that these non-avian toothless theropods may have had gizzards and been herbivores, like modern herbivorous birds that use grit to grind up plant matter.

Suggested Citation

  • Yoshitsugu Kobayashi & Jun-Chang Lu & Zhi-Ming Dong & Rinchen Barsbold & Yoichi Azuma & Yukimitsu Tomida, 1999. "Herbivorous diet in an ornithomimid dinosaur," Nature, Nature, vol. 402(6761), pages 480-481, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:402:y:1999:i:6761:d:10.1038_44999
    DOI: 10.1038/44999
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/44999
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/44999?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:402:y:1999:i:6761:d:10.1038_44999. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.