LiveScience digs deep for a prehistoric prize, finding dietary clues about Smok wawelski – a peak predator who, thankfully, left modern scientists poop full of bones:
In a new study published Jan. 30 in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden examined 10 large coprolites (aka, fossilized poos) believed to have been plopped onto what is now Polish land by Smok during the late Triassic period (251 million to 199 million years ago). Using high-energy X-ray scans, the team discovered that animal bones made up about 50 percent (by volume) of those ancient poos. The bones were gnashed up and slashed up with bite marks and could be traced to species all across the food chain, the researchers wrote.
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Smok (which translates to “dragon” in Polish) was a large, bipedal species of archosaur (a group of egg-laying animals that includes birds, crocodiles and dinosaurs) that lived about 140 million years before predators like T. rex ruled the land. And while it’s not so unusual for modern archosaurs like birds and crocs to swallow their prey whole without spitting out the bones, Smok seems to have employed its impressive, serrated chompers to break those bones into bite-size bits before swallowing them — “somewhat reminiscent of a hyena,” the researchers wrote.
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Among the shattered ribs and leg bones of lesser archosaurs present in Smok’s poop samples, the researchers spotted fragments of sharp teeth that likely came from Smok itself. The researchers said this probably means that Smok’s teeth were repeatedly crushed against the hard bones the predator was eating, and so the dinosaur sometimes accidentally ingested its own teeth along with its meal.