What Eats A Dinosaur? What Do Dinosaurs Eat?
Nothing eats dinosaurs, because dinosaurs are extinct. That means they no longer exist. The last dinosaurs died out around 60 million years ago.
However, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, most species, or kinds, of them had
predators, or natural enemies. All of the animals that ate dinosaurs were other dinosaurs.
The most famous dinosaur predator was Tyrannosaurus rex, which looked like the model in the photo above. T. Rex was the top apex predator of its time. However, there were many other species of predatory dinosaurs as well.
And, what do dinosaurs eat? Nothing, because they are extinct! But when they were alive, some dinosaurs ate vegetation, while others ate other dinosaurs.
So What Eats A Dinosaur?
Introduction
It is difficult to conceive of a dinosaur being devoured by anything other than a more enormous, ravenous dinosaur. Throughout the Mesozoic Era, dinosaurs were the top predators; they routinely ate fish, birds, reptiles, and mammals.
In actuality, however, both plant- and meat-eating dinosaurs frequently found themselves at the bottom of the food chain, either devoured as hatchlings or juveniles by sly predators or outmatched by vertebrates of similar size.
Nine creatures that unquestionably preyed on different dinosaurs for breakfast, lunch, and supper may be found here, based on fossil or indirect evidence.
These extinct creatures influenced the ecological dynamics of their era and lived in various habitats, including dry plains and lush forests. This article explores the fantastic world of what fed on the mighty dinosaurs.
The History of Dinosaurs
The planet was ruled by successful dinosaurs until around 66 million years ago when a massive asteroid collision caused their extinction. Dinosaurs first appeared between 230 and 240 million years ago. Ischigualasto Provincial Park in northwest Argentina is home to the earliest known dinosaur fossils, which date back around 231 million years.
Over time, some meat-eating dinosaurs shrank in size and turned into birds, but overall, dinosaurs grew from a group of primarily dog and horse-sized creatures into the most giant beasts to have ever lived on Earth.
Dinosaurs are among the group of creatures known as archosaurs, which also include crocodiles and birds. Understanding dinosaur predation reveals information on these animals’ ecological linkages and behaviors.
Predators Of A Dinosaur
1. Deinosuchus
Deinosuchus was a 35-foot-long, plant-eating dinosaur that lived in late Cretaceous North America. It had lots of opportunities to consume any other dinosaurs who dared to get too close to the riverbank. Though it’s unclear if these duck-billed dinosaurs were ambushed or were simply scavenged after their death, paleontologists have found scattered hadrosaur bones bearing Deinosuchus tooth marks.
They have also found evidence of Deinosuchus attacks on fully grown tyrannosaurs such as Appalachiosaurus and Albertosaurus. If Deinosuchus hunted and consumed dinosaurs, it most likely did so by pulling its unlucky prey into the water and drowning them. This is similar to how current crocodiles hunt and devour.
2. Quetzalcoatlus
Standing at 35 feet in length and weighing as much as 500 or 600 pounds, Quetzalcoatlus was one of the most giant dinosaurs to have ever lived. These stats have led some researchers to question whether or not the dinosaur was able to fly.
In the unlikely event that Quetzalcoatlus was a terrestrial carnivore that walked on its two hind feet through the underbrush of North America, it would have been eating smaller, easier-to-digest juvenile and hatchling dinosaurs rather than a mature Ankylosaurus.
3. Repenomamus
Repenomamus robustus and gigantic were the two species of early Cretaceous mammals that exist today. Their names may give you a different idea about the size of these animals because fully grown individuals weigh just 25 or 30 pounds when wet.
That was, nonetheless, highly amazing by the standards of Mesozoic mammals, and it helps to explain how the petrified remnants of a juvenile Psittacosaurus, a species of horned, frilled dinosaurs that is distantly related to Triceratops, were discovered inside one specimen of Repenomamus.
The problem is that we are unable to determine whether this specific Repenomamus actively pursued and killed its young victim or scavenged it after it had passed away naturally.
4. Cretoxyrhina
An amateur fossil hunter found the fossilized tail bones of a duck-billed dinosaur in Kansas in 2005. The bones had what seemed to be shark teeth marks, like an episode of Mesozoic CSI.
At first, the late Cretaceous Squalicorax was the target of suspicion, but the match wasn’t entirely correct. After some thorough investigation, the most likely culprit, Cretoxyrhina, often known as the Ginsu Shark, was found.
This dinosaur had previously drowned and was opportunistically filleted by its ferocious adversary when it was unexpectedly assaulted rather than going for a dip in the afternoon.
5. Didelphodon
Though entire scientific publications in renowned paleontology journals have been based on less, the argument for Didelphodon’s dinosaur-eating tendencies is, at best, circumstantial.
According to studies of its skull and jaws, Didelphodon’s bite was the strongest of any known Mesozoic mammal. It was almost as strong as that of the “bone-crushing” dogs of the later Cenozoic Era and more substantial than that of the modern hyena.
This leads one to believe that Didelphodon’s diet consisted largely of small vertebrates, including newly hatched dinosaurs.
6. Sanajeh
The ancient snake Sanajeh wasminore compared to the genuinely enormous Titanoboa; it was just 10 feet long and thick as a twig. However, this reptile had a peculiar way of feeding; it would search out the locations where titanosaur dinosaurs nested and either eat the eggs whole or eat the poor hatchlings as soon as they could.
How are we aware of everything? A 20-inch-long titanosaur hatchling fossil was found close to a preserved titanosaur egg, and a Sanajeh specimen was recently found in India!
7. Mosasaurus
In the film’s last scene, Indominus Rex is dragged to a muddy grave by a monstrous Mosasaurus. This may not be far from the truth, given that even the largest specimens of Mosasaurus were roughly ten times smaller than the monster from Jurassic World and that Indominus Rex is an entirely fictional dinosaur.
Instead, there is strong evidence to suggest that mosasaurs preyed on dinosaurs that unintentionally fell into the water during storms, floods, or migrations. The most robust circumstantial evidence comes from the fact that dinosaurs served as supper to the ancient shark Cretoxyrhina, a marine relative of the mosasaurs.
8. Tapeworms
It’s not always necessary for dinosaurs and other vertebrate creatures to be eaten from the outside; they may also be devoured from the inside. Nematodes, trematodes, and maybe even hundred-foot-long tapeworms plagued the intestines of this theropod dinosaur, according to a recent study of the coprolites (fossilized excrement) of an undiscovered type of meat-eating dinosaur.
While contemporary birds and crocodiles share a common ancestor with dinosaurs, their twisted stomachs are hardly pristine, which provides strong circumstantial evidence for Mesozoic parasites. It is unclear to us if these tapeworms, the size of Tyrannosaurus, caused illness in their hosts or if they had a beneficial relationship.
9. Bone-Boring Beetles
As with other animals, dinosaurs broke down after they died. Bone-boring beetles, worms, and bacteria all played a part in this process, as in the case of one fossil specimen belonging to the duck-billed dinosaur Nemegtomaia.
This poor plant muncher died of natural causes and ended up half-buried in the mud, leaving the left side of its corpse vulnerable to hungry Dermestidae beetles.
Final Words
Dinosaurs dominated the terrestrial vertebrate kingdom throughout the Mesozoic Era, influencing ecological processes and ecosystems with their great variety and evolutionary success.
But even these powerful reptiles faced challenges from dangerous predators that stalked the ancient environments, leaving them vulnerable to attack.
Dinosaurs had to traverse a dangerous world of competition, predation, and environmental obstacles.
These challenges came from various sources, including huge crocodilians, flying reptiles, and marine predators. However, dinosaurs survived for millions of years because of their amazing evolutionary breakthroughs and adaptations, leaving a lasting impression on the evolution of life on Earth.
