Published February 9, 2021 | Version v1
Dataset Open

Supplementary material for: Testing for a dietary shift in the Early Cretaceous ceratopsian dinosaur Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis

  • 1. University of Bristol
  • 2. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology

Description

Many dinosaurs may have shown ecological differentiation between hatchlings and adults, possibly because of the great size differential. The basal ceratopsian Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis is known from thousands of specimens from the Early Cretaceous of China and these include many so-called 'juvenile clusters'. During the early stages of ontogeny, P. lujiatunensis underwent a posture shift from quadrupedal to bipedal, and a dietary shift has also been postulated. In this study, we apply a 2D mechanical analysis of the jaws of a hatchling and an adult to determine the differences between the two systems and found some differences, but only modest. The adult was better suited to feeding on tough plant material than the hatchling, based on its higher values of absolute and relative bite forces and higher values of mechanical advantage, but there were no substantial shifts in jaw shape or function.

Files

PALA-07-20-4848-OA_SupplementaryMaterial.pdf

Files (57.5 MB)

Name Size Download all
md5:15c8ef29f9af30cfe40b62bfe5d56e70
26.4 MB Download
md5:aac3ea3bedc5e90c413a5c2eebbad68c
23.7 MB Download
md5:e3acee536daf4e1041be0d3aed38b6ef
7.4 MB Preview Download