Researchers found that the sauropod's ability to grow new teeth in 2 months could be the secret to its evolutionary success.
For a long time, scientists have wondered how sauropods, the largest dinosaurs in the fossil record, were able to survive considering the amount of food they needed to consume to maintain their size.
A team of paleontologists from Stony Brook University conducted a study wherein it found that the creatures had rapid tooth replacement with the ability to grow new teeth in less than 2 months. This rate was faster than any other dinosaur's and explained how sauropods managed to maintain their teeth even after ripping off large volumes of food to cater to their gigantic body size.
"The microscopic structure of teeth and bones records aspects of an animal's physiology, giving us a window into the biology of long-extinct animals," said Dr. Michael D'Emic, Research Instructor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University School of Medicine in a press release. "We determined that for the gigantic sauropods, each tooth took just a few months to form. Effectively, sauropods took a 'quantity over quality' approach."
This rapid growth of new teeth also led researchers to speculate that because of frequent new teeth, the diet of these creatures varied from time to time, which allowed multiple species to share the same ecosystems for several million years. Some of these species included Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus, and Apatosaurus, formerly called "Brontosaurus".
"At least twice during their evolution, sauropods evolved small, peg-like teeth that formed and replaced quickly," said Dr. D'Emic. "This characteristic may have led to the evolutionary success of sauropods."
Dr. D'Emic clarifies that unlike other animals sauropods didn't chew their food. They snipped their food into smaller pieces before swallowing it.
