These are nuts bearing the characteristic tooth-marks of Uromys vika.
|
|
He could bear the ache of a tongue full of tooth marks.
|
|
"You often see a lot of tooth marks in psychedelic mushrooms," Fenton observes.
|
|
Close examination of the Homo rhodesiensis remains revealed numerous fractures, tooth marks, and pits.
|
|
Tooth-marks on a 500,000-year-old hominin femur bone found in a Moroccan cave.
|
|
He pointed out the killer's signature: the blood around the head; the tooth marks where he'd crimped the windpipe, suffocating it; the open cavity, intestines removed.
|
|
Honeycombed with tooth marks and placed, just so, on a little ledge, the wads look like slugs, snails, newts, cocoons or even a toppled image of the Virgin Mary.
|
|
Tyrannosaur tooth marks are the most commonly preserved feeding traces of carnivorous dinosaurs. They have been reported from ceratopsians, hadrosaurs and other tyrannosaurs. Tyrannosaurid bones with tooth marks represent about 2% of known fossils with preserved tooth marks. Tyrannosaurid teeth were used as holdfasts for pulling meat off a body, rather than knife-like cutting functions.
|
|
Tyrannosaur tooth marks are the most commonly preserved feeding traces of carnivorous dinosaurs. They have been reported from ceratopsians, hadrosaurs and other tyrannosaurs. Tyrannosaurid bones with tooth marks represent about 2% of known fossils with preserved tooth marks.Jacobsen, A.R. 2001.
|
|
Cannibalism amongst some species of dinosaurs was confirmed by tooth marks found in Madagascar in 2003, involving the theropod Majungasaurus.
|
|
One skull of Tarchia shows tooth marks identified as belonging to the tyrannosaurid, Tarbosaurus, indicating the theropod hunted the ankylosaurid.
|
|
Majungasaurus tooth marks on Rapetosaurus bones confirm that it at least fed on these sauropods, whether or not it actually killed them.
|
|
A Saurornitholestes dentary has been discovered in the Dinosaur Park Formation that bore tooth marks left by the bite of a young tyrannosaur, possibly Daspletosaurus.
|
|
Tooth marks in the humerus, foot bones and metatarsals, may indicate opportunistic scavenging, rather than wounds caused by combat with another T. rex. Other tyrannosaurids may also have practiced cannibalism.
|
|
A humerus of an unidentified subadult elasmosaurid was found with bite marks matching the teeth of the shark Cretoxyrhina, while a crushed Woolungasaurus skull has tooth-marks matched to the pliosaur Kronosaurus.
|
|
Prehistoric Animals and Plants. Prague, Artia, 1979. It probably also ate land-living animals, such as small archosaurs. The fossils of some smaller temnospondyls bear tooth marks made by Mastodonsaurus-like animals.
|
|
Some edmontosaur bone beds were sites of scavenging. Albertosaurus and Saurornitholestes tooth marks are common at one Alberta bone bed, and Daspletosaurus fed on Edmontosaurus and fellow hadrosaurid Saurolophus at another Alberta site.
|
|
Two specimens of Protostega gigas have been discovered to have tooth marks from large sharks. In addition, teeth of the extinct shark Cretoxyrhina mantelli have been found embedded in at least one Protostega skeleton.
|
|
There is some evidence for cannibalism in Allosaurus, including Allosaurus shed teeth found among rib fragments, possible tooth marks on a shoulder blade, and cannibalized allosaur skeletons among the bones at Bakker's lair sites.
|
|
They alert the sheriff. Horace arrives and commands Michael to stay away from Amanda. Caroline and Michael return to the hospital, while Eli, Poole, and Schoonmaker search for clues. They uncover a swamp full of human bones with human tooth marks.
|
|
Golden eagle with a European hare Tyrannosaur tooth marks are the most commonly preserved feeding traces of carnivorous dinosaurs. It is usually not possible to identify tooth marks on bone made by small predatory dinosaurs due to similarities in the denticles on their teeth. However, there are exceptions, like an ornithomimid caudal vertebra that has tooth drag marks attributed to Saurornitholestes and a partial Troodon skeleton with preserved puncture marks. Small bones of small theropods that were preyed upon by larger ones may have been swallowed whole and digested frequently enough to affect their abundance in the fossil record.
|
|
Deposited in the locality are many taxa, including a large accumulation of Europasaurus bones and individuals. At least 450 bones from Europasaurus were recovered from the Langenberg Quarry, with about 1/3 bearing tooth marks Of these tooth marks, the sizes and shapes match well with the teeth of fish, crocodilians or other scavengers, but no confirmed theropod marks. The high number of individuals present suggests that a herd of Europasaurus was crossing a tidal zone and drowned. While the dominant large-bodied animal present is Europasaurus, there is also material from a diplodocid sauropod, a stegosaurian, and multiple theropods.
|
|
Richard Wiseman. (2011). Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there. London, UK: Pan Macmillan. p. 185. Price asked Reginald Pocock of the Natural History Museum to evaluate pawprints allegedly made by Gef in plasticene together with an impression of his supposed tooth marks.
|
|
The discovery of tooth marks in the fibula of a Hypacrosaurus specimen inflicted by a bite from the teeth of a tyrannosaurid indicated that this, and other hadrosaurids were either preyed upon or scavenged by large theropod dinosaurs during the Late Cretaceous period.
|
|
Richard Wiseman. (2011). Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there. London, UK: Pan Macmillan. p. 185. Price asked Reginald Pocock of the Natural History Museum to evaluate pawprints allegedly made by Gef in plasticine together with an impression of his supposed tooth marks.
|
|
Small tooth marks and teeth were attributed to small rodents. Human bone remains include a mandible. What lacks in skeletal remains, evidence of human habitation lies in tools, paintings, and animal carcasses. The large assemblage of faunal evidence implies early humans accumulated the prey from other areas.
|
|
Hans Thewissen and William A. McLellan (2009) Maiacetus: displaced fetus or last meal? PLoS ONE . Authors pointed out in the original article, however, that the fetal skull has no tooth marks. This species is medium-sized with a skeleton in length and an estimated weight of .
|
|
A related stereotypy in horses is cribbing, where a horse grabs a board or other edged object with its teeth, arches its neck and sucks in air. While this activity may cause some tooth marks on the surface used, this is not the same disorder as lignophagia.
|
|
About 25% of snakebite cases can be dry bites. They are characterized by fang and tooth marks and the absence of injected venom. Dry bites are often confusing for the attending physician and the victim. The phenomenon is exploited by quack doctors as evidence for the effectiveness of supposed miracle cures.
|
|
One tenontosaur humerus even bears what might be Deinonychus tooth marks. Brinkman et al. (1998) point out that Deinonychus had an adult mass of 70–100 kilograms, whereas adult tenontosaurs were 1–4 metric tons. A solitary Deinonychus could not kill an adult tenontosaur, suggesting that pack hunting is possible.
|
|
The type specimen of Murusraptor shows signs of severe infections around the left side of its braincase. Two tooth marks, likely inflicted by another theropod, are visible in front of and below the nuchal crest on the skull. Due to the infections, the entire left side of the occiput, the back of the head, was deformed. Some of the ribs were also infected.
|
|
Diet is largely deduced by the tooth morphology, tooth marks on bones of the prey, and gut contents. Some theropods, such as Baryonyx, Lourinhanosaurus, ornithomimosaurs, and birds, are known to use gastroliths, or gizzard-stones. The majority of theropod teeth are blade-like, with serration on the edges, called ziphodont. Others are pachydont or phyllodont depending on the shape of the tooth or denticles.
|
|
A Megalosaurus rib figured in 1856 and 1884 publications by Sir Richard Owen is swollen at the point where it would have articulated with its vertebra. The Monolophosaurus jiangi specimen IVP 84019 had its 10th and possibly 11th neural spines fractured. The tenth neural spine is fused to the eleventh. A series of parallel ridges on one of the specimens' dentaries may represent tooth marks.
|
|
Saurornitholestes skeleton. A. R. Jacobsen published a description of a dentary referred to Saurornitholestes with tooth marks. The dentary is about 12 cm long and preserves fifteen tooth positions, ten of these have teeth, with five of those teeth fully erupted and intact, two broken but functional as evidenced by the presence of wearfacets, three are only partially erupted. Three toothmarks were visible on the lingual surface of the dentary.
|
|
Majungasaurus was the largest predator in its environment, while the only known contemporaneous large herbivores were sauropods like Rapetosaurus. Scientists have suggested that Majungasaurus specialized in hunting sauropods. Majungasaurus tooth marks on Rapetosaurus bones indicate that it at least fed on these sauropods, whether or not it actually killed them. Typically, titanosaurs were unusual among sauropods in that they coexisted with large ornithischian dinosaurs such as ceratopsids, hadrosaurs, and ankylosaurs.
|
|
Ceratosaurs were theropods and thus carnivores, with one exception, Limusaurus inextricabilis was an herbivore with a toothless beak. Ceratosaurus has been argued to have eaten a large amount of fish and other aquatic creatures, though this has been disputed by many paleontologists. Tooth marks on large animals such as Allosaurus indicate that Ceratosaurus likely utilized scavenging often. The interesting jaws of the abelisaurids have drawn mixed dietary predictions.
|
|
In the Dinosaur Park Formation, small theropods are rare due to the tendency of their thin-walled bones to be broken or poorly preserved. Small bones of small theropods that were preyed upon by larger ones may have been swallowed whole and digested. In this context, the discovery of a small theropod dinosaur with preserved tooth marks was especially valuable. Possible indeterminate avimimid remains are known from the formation.
|
|
Taphonomic modes of the Wayan are distinct. Fossiliferous 'pods' of Oryctodromeus skeletons and skeletal elements, sometimes with more than one individual represented, are the most common occurrence of vertebrate skeletal remains. Degrees of association and articulation range from fully articulated individuals to articulated strings of vertebrae and articulate limbs associated with other elements. These Oryctodromeus remains exhibit no appreciable pre-burial taphonomic modifications such as weathering, abrasion, breakage, or tooth marks.
|
|
Other herbivorous groups like ornithomimids, therizinosaurs, pachycephalosaurs, small ornithopods, nodosaurids and ankylosaurids were also represented. Small predatory dinosaurs like oviraptorosaurs, troodonts and dromaeosaurs hunted smaller prey than the huge tyrannosaurids; Daspletosaurus and Gorgosaurus, which were two orders of magnitude larger in mass. Intervening predatory niches may have been filled by young tyrannosaurids. A Saurornitholestes dentary has been discovered in the Dinosaur Park Formation that bore tooth marks left by the bite of a young tyrannosaur, possibly Gorgosaurus.
|
|
This ignorance of diet is partly due to the potential prevalence of regurgitation among net caught specimens, where nearly 100% of net caught daggertooths were documented with completely empty stomachs, the supposed reason being the regurgitation of freshly eaten food upon capture in nets as a defense mechanism. They are likely visually based predators and adult individuals can easily engulf relatively large prey, fishes with 20–30 cm fork length, whole due to their unattached pectoral girdles and distensible stomachs. Observations of slash marks on numerous young Pacific salmon in the northern Pacific prompted an investigation into the potential impact of daggertooth depredation on young salmon stocks by assessment of the tooth marks left on the salmon and estimations of daggertooth abundance. The subsequent findings showed that slashes from failed daggertooth attacks could be distinguished from failed lancetfish attacks by the placement of the tooth marks, as daggertooths only have fang-like teeth along their upper jaw while lancetfish have fang like teeth along both the upper and lower jaws.
|
|
Opisthocoelicaudia is a genus of sauropod dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous Period discovered in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. The type species is Opisthocoelicaudia skarzynskii. A well-preserved skeleton lacking only the head and neck was unearthed in 1965 by Polish and Mongolian scientists, making Opisthocoelicaudia one of the best known sauropods from the Late Cretaceous. Tooth marks on this skeleton indicate that large carnivorous dinosaurs had fed on the carcass and possibly had carried away the now-missing parts.
|
|
Mastodonsaurids were piscivorous, mainly preying on small and mid-sized fish, although they also ate land-living animals, such as small archosaurs. Some evidences, including the fossils of some smaller temnospondyls bear tooth marks made by mastodonsaurid-like animals. It is very likely that mastodonsaurids caught their food like the living Giant Salamander, waiting until the prey came near, then quickly opening their enormous mouths and swallowing them prey whole. The most probable food would be small fishes, up to some 15 cm.
|
|
A 2009 study showed that smooth-edged holes in the skulls of several specimens might have been caused by Trichomonas-like parasites that commonly infect birds. Seriously infected individuals, including "Sue" and MOR 980 ("Peck's Rex"), might therefore have died from starvation after feeding became increasingly difficult. Previously, these holes had been explained by the bacterious bone infection Actinomycosis or by intraspecific attacks. One study of Tyrannosaurus specimens with tooth marks in the bones attributable to the same genus was presented as evidence of cannibalism.
|
|
The peculiar shape of their last lower premolar is their most outstanding feature. These teeth were larger and more elongated than the other cheek-teeth and had an occlusive surface forming a serrated slicing blade. Though it can be assumed that this was used for crushing seeds and nuts, it is believed that most small multituberculates also supplemented their diet with insects, worms, and fruits. Tooth marks attributed to multituberculates are known on Champsosaurus fossils, indicating that at least some of these mammals were scavengers.
|
|
It came from a bonebed in the Bighorn Basin of north-central Wyoming, and was found near the shoulder blade of a Sauroposeidon. An assortment of other fragmentary theropod remains from the formation may also belong to Acrocanthosaurus, which may be the only large theropod in the Cloverly Formation. Acrocanthosaurus may be known from less complete remains outside of Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming. A tooth from southern Arizona has been referred to the genus, and matching tooth marks have been found in sauropod bones from the same area.
|
|
From a behavioral standpoint, one of the most valuable dinosaur fossils was discovered in the Gobi Desert in 1971. It included a Velociraptor attacking a Protoceratops, providing evidence that dinosaurs did indeed attack each other. Additional evidence for attacking live prey is the partially healed tail of an Edmontosaurus, a hadrosaurid dinosaur; the tail is damaged in such a way that shows the animal was bitten by a tyrannosaur but survived. Cannibalism amongst some species of dinosaurs was confirmed by tooth marks found in Madagascar in 2003, involving the theropod Majungasaurus.
|
|
Squalicorax was a coastal predator, but also scavenged as evidenced by a Squalicorax tooth found embedded in the metatarsal (foot) bone of a terrestrial hadrosaurid dinosaur that most likely died on land and ended up in the water. Other food sources included turtles, mosasaurs, ichthyodectes, and other bony fishes and sea creatures. Tooth marks from this shark have also been found on the bones of Pteranodon, but whether the shark actively snatched such large pterosaurs out of the air, attacked them as they dove after prey, or was simply scavenging is not known.
|
|
Researchers recovered more than 2500 hominin fossil elements from the site. The minimum number of individuals from Sidrón Cave is 13. The age of these remains of three men, three adolescent boys, four women, and three infants has been estimated to about 49,000 years. The fact that the bones are excellently preserved with very limited erosion and no large carnivore tooth marks and the unusual deposition of the bones, mixed into a jumble of gravel and mud, suggests that these Neanderthals did not die in this spot but an exterior location.
|
|
Before burial, scavengers could have disrupted the skeletal material, which is evident in the severed Eolambia tibiae bearing tooth marks discovered in the Cifelli #2 quarry. The regression of the lake could have occasionally created bogs, but they would not have been permanent enough to entrap and preserve larger vertebrates. Action by water currents seems to have played a role in the deposition of Eolambia bones in the Cifelli #2 quarry, where the bones are largely deposited at 28°, 69°, 93°, 131° and 161° azimuth (i.e. relative to north).
|
|
The depressions are not symmetrical enough for gastropod drill marks and are not shaped like sponge borings. None of the preserved fish fossils of the Matanuska Formation fit the size or geometry of the borings. The size and spacing and shape by contrast, however, closely resembles the teeth of Tylosaurus proriger. The apparent tooth marks are unlikely to have occurred before the carcass was washed out to sea since that would have punctured the body, preventing the buildup of bloating gases that allowed the carcass to drift out to sea in the first place.
|
|
40 mm thick with cuboidal cross-sections. Gorgosaurus may have inflicted the tooth marks on the Saurornitholestes skull. The second tooth mark lies between the fifth and sixth alveoli and consists of two smaller grooves separated 1.8 and 1.6 mm respectively from a larger central groove, with a V-shaped groove beneath it at an angle of sixty degrees to the longitudinal axis of the jaw. The third mark consists of four parallel grooves in a 2 x 2 mm area on the seventh tooth oriented at ninety degrees to the longitudinal axis of the tooth.
|
|
The chief predators of ceratopsids were tyrannosaurids. There is evidence for an aggressive interaction between a Triceratops and a Tyrannosaurus in the form of partially healed tyrannosaur tooth marks on a Triceratops brow horn and squamosal (a bone of the neck frill); the bitten horn is also broken, with new bone growth after the break. It is not known what the exact nature of the interaction was, though: either animal could have been the aggressor. Since the Triceratops wounds healed, it is most likely that the Triceratops survived the encounter and managed to overcome the Tyrannosaurus.
|
|
The completeness and articulation (connectedness) of the skeletons suggest rapid burial, though the presence of isolated body parts also suggest that some carcasses were exposed to the air for days or months. Evidence for scavenging, such as isolated bones, tooth marks on bones, or of theropods, is lacking. However, it is possible that scavengers carried whole body parts away, as feeding at the pits might not have been possible. Eberth and colleagues speculated that the two Guanlong specimens preserved at the top of pit TBB2002 could have been scavenging on the mired carcasses before getting mired themselves.
|
|
Triceratops were long thought to have used their horns and frills in combat with predators such as Tyrannosaurus, the idea being discussed first by Charles H. Sternberg in 1917 and 70 years later by Robert Bakker. There is evidence that Tyrannosaurus did have aggressive head-on encounters with Triceratops, based on partially healed tyrannosaur tooth marks on a Triceratops brow horn and squamosal; the bitten horn is also broken, with new bone growth after the break. Which animal was the aggressor is not known. Since the Triceratops wounds healed, it is most likely that the Triceratops survived the encounter.
|
|
Then Marci explains the problem she is dealing with: she knows Otto died three days before Mrs. Ringel was apparently "mauled", and the teeth marks on her body match Otto. Monk finds many clues that suggest that Otto was framed, and so Monk, Natalie, and Marci go to several lumber yards in the area. At John Ringel's lumberyard, they find clues that explain Otto's day- long disappearance of about two weeks earlier, the simple explanation being that Ringel made a pruning-type device that could make dog tooth marks on his wife's body after he murdered her.
|
|
Because it survived the attack, Carpenter suggested that it may have outmaneuvered or outrun its attacker, or that the damage to its tail was incurred by the hadrosaurid using it as a weapon against the tyrannosaur. [not printed until 2000] Another specimen of E. annectens, pertaining to a long individual from South Dakota, shows evidence of tooth marks from small theropods on its lower jaws. Some of the marks are partially healed. Michael Triebold, informally reporting on the specimen, suggested a scenario where small theropods attacked the throat of the edmontosaur; the animal survived the initial attack but succumbed to its injuries shortly thereafter.
|
|
Upon preparation, however, it was discovered that there was the skeleton of a smaller archosaur under its pelvis, and the bones of several different animals as gut contents that remained in place in the rauisuchian fossil: these included bones and scutes of the aetosaur Stegomus, some with tooth marks; bones from the snout, arm, and shoulder of the traversodont cynodont Plinthogomphodon; phalanx bones of a dicynodont; and a bone fragment from a possible temnospondyl. Additionally, the small archosaur, later named Dromicosuchus, had damage to its neck armor and lower jaw that appears to have been caused by rauisuchian teeth, perhaps those of the animal that was found above it.
|
|
Using the tooth marks, Gignac's team were able to determine that the bite force of Deinonychus was significantly higher than earlier studies had estimated by biomechanical studies alone. They found the bite force of Deinonychus to be between 4,100 and 8,200 newtons, greater than living carnivorous mammals including the hyena, and equivalent to a similarly sized alligator. Gignac and colleagues also noted, however, that bone puncture marks from Deinonychus are relatively rare, and unlike larger theropods with many known puncture marks like Tyrannosaurus, Deinonychus probably did not frequently bite through or eat bone. Instead, they probably used their high bite force in defense or prey capture, rather than feeding.
|
|
Although sauropods may have been the prey of choice for Majungasaurus, discoveries published in 2007 detail finds in Madagascar that indicate the presence of other Majungasaurus in their diet. Numerous bones of Majungasaurus have been discovered bearing tooth marks identical to those found on sauropod bones from the same localities. These marks have the same spacing as teeth in Majungasaurus jaws, are of the same size as Majungasaurus teeth, and contain smaller notches consistent with the serrations on those teeth. As Majungasaurus is the only large theropod known from the area, the simplest explanation is that it was feeding on other members of its own species.
|
|
More or less contemporary dinosaur genera of the area included Prosaurolophus, Scolosaurus, Hypacrosaurus, Einiosaurus and tyrannosaurids of uncertain classification. As proven by tooth marks, horned dinosaur fossils in the Landslide Butte Field Area had been scavenged by a large theropod predator, which Rogers suggested were Albertosaurus. Biogeography of centrosaurine dinosaurs during the Campanian The exact composition of the fauna Achelousaurus was part of is uncertain, as its fossils have not been discovered in direct association with other taxa. Its intermediate anagenetic position suggests that Achelousaurus shared its habitat with forms roughly found in the middle or at the end of the time range of its formation.
|
|
Investigators suspicions' were further raised by the waders' condition—undamaged, without any tooth marks, and lacking any of the residues that would be expected to accumulate on an object submerged in the lake for as long as the waders had supposedly been. Arnette filtered the water in them after they were recovered, and did not find any human remains. The hunting jacket and flashlight were likewise in much better condition than expected, with the latter even working when turned on. Apart from the condition of the waders was the question of why Williams would have been wearing them when he supposedly fell out of the boat.
|
|
Infant megalodons were around at their smallest, and the pups were vulnerable to predation by other shark species, such as the great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran) and the snaggletooth shark (Hemipristis serra). Their dietary preferences display an ontogenetic shift: Young megalodon commonly preyed on fish, sea turtles, dugongs, and small cetaceans; mature megalodon moved to off-shore areas and consumed large cetaceans. An exceptional case in the fossil record suggests that juvenile megalodon may have occasionally attacked much larger balaenopterid whales. Three tooth marks apparently from a long Pliocene shark were found on a rib from an ancestral blue or humpback whale that showed evidence of subsequent healing, which is suspected to have been inflicted by a juvenile megalodon.
|
|
C. hastalis was a confirmed hunter of marine mammals. Trace fossils in the form of tooth marks on the bones of a Pliocene dolphin of the species Astadelphis gastaldii reveal that C. hastalis attacked its prey from below and behind, much as the modern great white shark does. The deepest bite marks on the dolphin's ribs indicate the shark aimed for the abdomen of its prey to inflict a fatal bite quickly and incapacitate its prey, and that when the dolphin was attacked a second time, it was bitten near the dorsal fin, suggesting that the dolphin rolled over while injured. The size of the bites indicates further that the shark responsible was estimated to be long.
|
|
The holotype MSNTUP I-15459 of Aegyptocetus tarfa Aegyptocetus is known from the articulated holotype MSNTUP I-15459, an almost complete cranium, lower jaws (with teeth) and a partial postcranial skeleton (cervical and thoracic vertebrae and ribs). The specimen was recovered when marbleized limestone was imported commercially to Italy. It was collected in the Khashm el-Raqaba limestone quarry (, paleocoordinates ) from the Gebel Hof Formation on the northern flank of Wadi Tarfa in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, dating to the late Mokattamian age of the middle Eocene, about . Its cause of death may have been an attack by a large shark as pattern of shark tooth marks preserved on the ribs.
|
|
Specifically, the differences between the manus bones of P. kirkpatricki and P. alisonae confirm the chimera theory (associated fossils belonging to different animals) suggested by Long and Murry. The holotype specimen of P. alisonae (UNC 15575) is also unusual in its preservation of gut contents: bones from at least four other animals, including a partial skeleton of an aetosaur, a snout, coracoid, and humerus of the traversodontid cynodont Plinthogomphodon, two phalanges from a dicynodont, and a possible temnospondyl bone. Furthermore, the Postosuchus was positioned on top of a skeleton of the sphenosuchian Dromicosuchus, which included tooth marks on the skull and neck. P. alisonae represents the largest suchian reptile recovered from the quarry and the first articulated specimen of 'rauisuchian' archosaur found in eastern North America.
|
|
Archaeologists seeking to study the practice of ritual excarnation in the archeological record must differentiate between the removal of flesh as a burial practice, and as a precursor to cannibalism. When human bones exhibiting signs of flesh removal are discovered in the fossil record, a variety of criteria can be used to distinguish between the two. One common approach is to compare the tool marks and other cuts on the bones with butchered animal bones from the same site, with the assumption that cannibalized humans would have been prepared like any other meat, whereas excarnated bodies would be prepared differently. Cannibalized bones, in contrast to excarnated bones, may also exhibit telltale signs such as human tooth marks, broken long bones (to facilitate marrow extraction), and signs of cooking, such as "pot polishing".
|
|
The nasal openings were also retracted back on the jaws, similar to spinosaurids, which have even more retracted nasal openings, and this may have limited water splashing into the nostrils during fishing. Both groups also had long arms with well-developed claws, which could help when catching fish. Lake Dixie, a large lake that extended from Utah to Arizona and Nevada, would have provided abundant fish in the "post-cataclysmic", biologically more impoverished world that followed the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event. Scapula of Sarahsaurus with a probable tooth mark on its outer surface (C) possibly left by a scavenging Dilophosaurus In 2018, Marsh and Rowe reported that the holotype specimen of the sauropodomorph Sarahsaurus bore possible tooth marks scattered across the skeleton that may have been left by Dilophosaurus (Syntarus was too small to have produced them) scavenging the specimen after it died (the positions of the bones may also have been disturbed by scavenging).
|
|
American mastodon arm bone with A. simus tooth marks at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in Denver, Colorado Researchers disagree on the diet of Arctodus. Analysis of bones from Alaska showed high concentrations of nitrogen-15, a stable nitrogen isotope accumulated by meat eaters, with no evidence of ingestion of vegetation. Based on this evidence, A. simus was suggested to have been highly carnivorous and as an adult would have required of flesh per day to survive.National Geographic Channel, 16 September 2007, Prehistoric Predators: Short-faced bear,’’ interview with Dr. Paul Matheus Others point out that nitrogen-15 bone analysis cannot distinguish between hypercarnivores and omnivores that ate a significant amount of animal matter, that the species would have had a varied diet across its range, and that the features of the skull and teeth match modern omnivorous bears and it was probably an omnivore with northern individuals having a similar diet to Alaskan brown bears.
|
|