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Beetle-bearing coprolites possibly reveal the diet of a Late Triassic dinosauriform.

ABSTRACT: Diets of extinct animals can be difficult to analyse if no direct evidence, such as gut contents, is preserved in association with body fossils. Inclusions from coprolites (fossil faeces), however, may also reflect the diet of the host animal and become especially informative if the coprolite producer link can be established. Here we describe, based on propagation phase-contrast synchrotron microtomography (PPC-SR?CT), the contents of five morphologically similar coprolites collected from two fossil-bearing intervals from the highly fossiliferous Upper Triassic locality at Krasiejów in Silesia, Poland. Beetle remains, mostly elytra, and unidentified exoskeleton fragments of arthropods are the most conspicuous inclusions found in the coprolites. The abundance of these inclusions suggests that the coprolite producer deliberately targeted beetles and similar small terrestrial invertebrates as prey, but the relatively large size of the coprolites shows that it was not itself a small animal. The best candidate from the body fossil record of the locality is the dinosauriform Silesaurus opolensis Dzik, 2003, which had an anatomy in several ways similar to those of bird-like neotheropod dinosaurs and modern birds. We hypothesize that the beak-like jaws of S. opolensis were used to efficiently peck small insects off the ground, a feeding behaviour analogous to some extant birds.

SUBMITTER: Qvarnstrom M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6458417 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Beetle-bearing coprolites possibly reveal the diet of a Late Triassic dinosauriform.

Qvarnström Martin M Wernström Joel Vikberg JV Piechowski Rafał R Tałanda Mateusz M Ahlberg Per E PE Niedźwiedzki Grzegorz G

Royal Society open science 20190313 3

Diets of extinct animals can be difficult to analyse if no direct evidence, such as gut contents, is preserved in association with body fossils. Inclusions from coprolites (fossil faeces), however, may also reflect the diet of the host animal and become especially informative if the coprolite producer link can be established. Here we describe, based on propagation phase-contrast synchrotron microtomography (PPC-SRμCT), the contents of five morphologically similar coprolites collected from two fo ...[more]

PMID: 31031991

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Project description:During the Carnian, oligotrophic shallow-water regions of the western Tethys were occupied by small, coral-rich patch reefs. Scleractinian corals, which already contributed to the formation of the reef structure, owed their position most probably to the symbiosis with dinoflagellate algae (zooxanthellae). Using microstructural (regularity of growth increments) and geochemical (oxygen and carbon stable isotopes) criteria of zooxanthellae symbiosis, we investigated whether this partnership was widespread among Carnian scleractinians from the Italian Dolomites (locality Alpe di Specie). Although corals from this locality are renowned from excellent mineralogical preservation (aragonite), their skeletons were rigorously tested against traces of diagenesis Irrespective of their growth forms, well preserved skeletons of corals from the Dolomites, most frequently revealed regular growth bands (low values of coefficient of variation) typical of modern zooxanthellate corals. Paradoxically, some Carnian taxa (Thamnasteriomorpha frechi and Thamnasteriomorphasp.)with highly integrated thamnasterioid colonies which today are formed exclusively by zooxanthellate corals, showed irregular fine-scale growth bands (coefficient of variation of 40% and 41% respectively) that could suggest their asymbiotic status. However, similar irregular skeletal banding is known also in some modern agariciids (Leptoseris fragilis) which are symbiotic with zooxanthellae. This may point to a similar ecological adaptation of Triassic taxa with thamnasterioid colonies. Contrary to occasionally ambiguous interpretation of growth banding, all examined Carnian corals exhibited lack of distinct correlation between carbon (δ 13C range between 0.81‰ and 5.81‰) and oxygen (δ 18O values range between -4.21‰ and -1.06‰) isotope composition of the skeleton which is consistent with similar pattern in modern zooxanthellates. It is therefore highly likely, that Carnian scleractinian corals exhibited analogous ecological adaptations as modern symbiotic corals and that coral-algal symbiosis that spread across various clades of Scleractinia preceded the reef bloom at the end of the Triassic.

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Beetle-bearing coprolites possibly reveal the diet of a Late Triassic dinosauriform.

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Beetle-bearing coprolites possibly reveal the diet of a Late Triassic dinosauriform.

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