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

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dc.abstract.enDiets 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 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.
dc.affiliationUniwersytet Warszawski
dc.contributor.authorPiechowski, Rafał
dc.contributor.authorWernstrom, Joel Vikberg
dc.contributor.authorQvarnstrom, Martin
dc.contributor.authorTałanda, Mateusz
dc.contributor.authorNiedźwiedzki, Grzegorz
dc.contributor.authorAhlberg, Per E.
dc.date.accessioned2024-01-24T18:33:33Z
dc.date.available2024-01-24T18:33:33Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.financeNie dotyczy
dc.identifier.doi10.1098/RSOS.181042
dc.identifier.urihttps://repozytorium.uw.edu.pl//handle/item/102068
dc.languageeng
dc.pbn.affiliationbiological sciences
dc.relation.ispartofRoyal Society Open Science
dc.rightsClosedAccess
dc.sciencecloudnosend
dc.subject.encoprolites palaeoecology Dinosauromorpha beetle elytra insectivore
dc.titleBeetle-bearing coprolites possibly reveal the diet of a Late Triassic dinosauriform
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typePublication