All articles tagged with #morrison formation
A near-complete 16 cm fossil of Opisthiamimus gregori, a rhynchocephalian, was found in Wyoming’s Morrison Formation near an Allosaurus nest. Researchers used micro-CT scans to create a detailed 3D reconstruction, suggesting an insectivorous diet and revealing jaw-tooth mechanics that can help classify other fossils and better understand this once-diverse group that declined long ago.
Fossil data from the Dry Mesa Quarry reconstruct a dense Jurassic food web in which abundant hatchling sauropods provided a reliable prey source for large predators, shaping predator dynamics across the Late Jurassic and helping explain how later giants like Tyrannosaurus rex could accumulate calories to grow to enormous sizes.
A new small herbivorous dinosaur named Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae was discovered in Colorado's Morrison Formation, challenging previous classifications of similar species and highlighting the potential for more Jurassic secrets beneath the western US. The find emphasizes the importance of studying smaller dinosaurs, which have been overlooked compared to larger species.
A new study published in PeerJ examines the bite marks on the bones of long-necked sauropod dinosaurs and reveals surprising insights into the feeding habits of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs in North America. The research suggests that while bite traces on large sauropods were less common than in tyrannosaur-dominated environments, they are nonetheless abundant in the Morrison Formation. The study also highlights the wear on the teeth of Morrison Formation theropods, which shows similarities to the patterns seen in large tyrannosaurs. The findings shed light on the ecological relationships between dinosaurs in the Jurassic period and provide valuable information about the behavior of these ancient animals.