This Ancient Creature Went Extinct Because of Its Own Actions, Its Teeth Were Worn Down to the Point of Being Unable to Chew

Ancient Creatures Extinct Due to Their Own Actions, Their Teeth Became Blunt and Unable to Chew

Between 225 and 250 million years ago, before dinosaurs dominated, a group of smaller reptiles the size of sheep roamed the world. These creatures, called rhynchosaurus, appeared as if they were always smiling due to their unique way of chewing plants: Instead of chewing with their jaws moving up and down, they used scissor-like movements to grind the plants between their teeth and open jaw bones.

This strategy helps them digest tough vegetation and reproduce throughout the middle and late Triassic period. However, according to a recently published paper in the journal Palaeontology, it may also contribute to their downfall.

"When Reaching Old Age"

"When rhynchosaurus reaches old age, it is likely that they have chewed so much that their teeth are completely worn out. With nothing left to bite or destroy for food, researchers state that older rhynchosaurus may die of starvation."

Experts in paleontology are interested in rhynchosaurus partly because their fossil remains are very abundant, comprising about 90% of vertebrate specimens in several Triassic excavation sites, as reported by Freda Kreier from the New York Times.

This Ancient Creature Went Extinct Because of Its Own Actions, Its Teeth Were Worn Down to the Point of Being Unable to Chew

"Create Curiosity"

"But they are also curious about these herbivores because their special food grinding technique makes them vulnerable to infections, which raises the question of why they evolved to be like that. As there are still some animals that eat in this way today, such as some types of chameleons, researchers want to understand as much as possible about this strange adaptation."

"Keausan itu tidak baik bagi Anda, terutama jika Anda ingin terus makan," "Friction is not good for you, especially if you want to keep eating."

Yara Haridy, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago who was not involved in this research but reviewed it before publication, told the Times.

Untuk lebih memahami reptil Trias, para peneliti pelajari hasil pemindaian tomografi terkomputasi (CT) dari rahang fosil rhynchosaur yang ditemukan di Devon, Inggris

"To better understand Triassic reptiles, researchers studied the results of computed tomography (CT) scans of the fossilized jaw of a rhynchosaur found in Devon, England."

Foto: Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul

From this analysis, researchers found that every time these reptile teeth are shed or damaged, rhynchosaurus grows a new jaw part with new teeth at the back of their mouth. Then, this part moves forward so that these animals can chew with these new teeth instead of the worn-out ones. As rhynchosaurus ages, their jaws become longer, and the blunt teeth and bones remain at the front of their mouth.

However, in the end, their bodies cannot keep up with this development: with worn-out teeth and no new parts growing to replace them, older rhynchosaurus simply cannot eat, according to the research's suggestion. The team now wants to confirm this assumption by searching for other evidence of possible starvation in rhynchosaurus.

"This is like modern elephants—they have a fixed number of teeth that start to be used from the back, and after 70 years or more, their teeth will be on their last tooth, and that's it,"
The translation of the given 'Bahasa' text to 'English' while preserving any html tags is: "the word Coram in his statement."

"Kami tidak berpikir rhynchosaurus bisa hidup selama itu, tapi makanan nabati mereka sangat teruji sehingga rahang mereka menjadi rusak, dan mungkin mereka akhirnya mati kelaparan." Translation: "We didn't think rhynchosaurus could survive that long, but their plant-based food was so tough that it damaged their jaws, and they might have eventually died of starvation."

Besides harming rhynchosaurus individually, this unusual chewing technique may have contributed to the extinction of the entire species. At the beginning of the rhynchosaurus reign, this planet was covered by relatively soft ferns, which would be easy for them to grind. But about 225 million years ago, the world climate changed, allowing harder and needle-covered conifers to reproduce.

If rhynchosaurus tries to continue eating in the same way, it will be very difficult for them to obtain enough nutrients to survive, as reported by Times.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine

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