DINOSAUR PREDATORS AND PREY - ZoomDinosaurs.com

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DINOSAUR QUESTIONS

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		By Date	By Type of Dinosaur	General Dino. Qns.	Qns. About Other Animals	Geological Era Qns.

Frequently Asked Dinosaur Questions

Question #13: How do you know what the enemies of a dinosaur were?

Answer: The actual predators of most dinosaurs are not known. To determine what dinosaurs a meat-eater ate is very difficult since the fossil record is all there is, and it is very incomplete.

Fossil evidence
There are only a few ways of finding out about dinosaur predator/prey relationship, and they are all very rare.

Fossilized stomach contents can tell you exactly what that dinosaur ate for its last meal (but only its last meal, not necessarily its entire diet). For example, Baryonyx stomach contents were found to contain fish scales.
Fossilized dung also lets you know the contents of a dinosaur's meal. Unfortunately, figuring out what dinosaur the fossilized dung came from is not easy. Recently, T. rex dung was found containing crushed Triceratops bone. Fossilized dung is called coprolites.
Finding two fossilized dinosaurs that died in battle lets you know about the predator/prey relationship. In Mongolia, a Velociraptor and Protoceratops were found together, each bearing battle wounds (like teeth marks in the bones).

Guessing:
Without solid fossil evidence, your only recourse is guessing. To find out the pool of possible predators of a particular dinosaur:

Determine when and where the dinosaur lived, and how big it was (for this information, go the information sheet about your dinosaur or to the Dinosaur Dictionary).
Go to the page that lists what dinosaurs lived during each period (to see which dinosaurs lived at the same time and place):
To determine possible predators, scroll down to the right continent and look for other animals that during the same span of years. To find possible predators of a particular dinosaur, eliminate meat-eaters that were a lot smaller than your dinosaur.

For more information on dinosaur diets, click here.

Top Sixteen Dinosaur Questions

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