Dinosaurs cut their teeth

Abstract

Teeth can reveal a lot about the owner's diet. In May, Andy Heckert, a graduate student at the University of New Mexico (USA), presented a paper to the Geological Society of America where he showed evidence of dinosaur fossilized teeth that he thinks show the transition from early meat-eating to plant eating dinosaurs. He found teeth shaped for meat eating that were blunted, indicating plant eating. The fossils are >200 million years old and might place the initial evolution of herbivory. Heckert found seven different types of the early herbivore fossil dinosaurs, suggesting that herbivory evolved rapidly. [Associated Press 3 May 2001] TS