Palaeontologists have found that duck-billed dinosaurs had a unique way of eating—unlike any other living creature today. This discovery may be a key to Late Cretaceous ecosystems and how dinosaurs were affected during the major extinction 65 million years ago. The Hadrosaur were the world’s dominant herbivores. The scientists were able to draw their conclusions from new microscopic analysis of scratches on the teeth. “Rather than a flexible lower jaw joint, they had a hinge between the upper jaws and the rest of the skull,” says Palaeontologist Paul Berrett. “As they bit down on their food the upper jaws were forced outwards, flexing along this hinge so that the tooth surfaces slid sideways across each other, grinding and shredding food in the process.”
General
Study reveals feeding mechanism of the Hadrosaur herbivore
The duck-billed dinosaur provides answers to age old ecology questions
