Digestive contents and food webs record the advent of dinosaur supremacy

Martin Qvarnström (), Joel Vikberg Wernström, Zuzanna Wawrzyniak, Maria Barbacka, Grzegorz Pacyna, Artur Górecki, Jadwiga Ziaja, Agata Jarzynka, Krzysztof Owocki, Tomasz Sulej, Leszek Marynowski, Grzegorz Pieńkowski, Per E. Ahlberg and Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki ()
Additional contact information
Martin Qvarnström: Uppsala University
Joel Vikberg Wernström: Uppsala University
Zuzanna Wawrzyniak: University of Silesia in Katowice
Maria Barbacka: Botany Department
Grzegorz Pacyna: Jagiellonian University
Artur Górecki: Jagiellonian University
Jadwiga Ziaja: Polish Academy of Sciences
Agata Jarzynka: Research Centre in Kraków
Krzysztof Owocki: Polish Academy of Sciences
Tomasz Sulej: Polish Academy of Sciences
Leszek Marynowski: University of Silesia in Katowice
Grzegorz Pieńkowski: Polish Geological Institute – National Research Institute
Per E. Ahlberg: Uppsala University
Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki: Uppsala University

Nature, 2024, vol. 636, issue 8042, 397-403

Abstract: Abstract The early radiation of dinosaurs remains a complex and poorly understood evolutionary event1–4. Here we use hundreds of fossils with direct evidence of feeding to compare trophic dynamics across five vertebrate assemblages that record this event in the Triassic–Jurassic succession of the Polish Basin (central Europe). Bromalites, fossil digestive products, increase in size and diversity across the interval, indicating the emergence of larger dinosaur faunas with new feeding patterns. Well-preserved food residues and bromalite-taxon associations enable broad inferences of trophic interactions. Our results, integrated with climate and plant data, indicate a stepwise increase of dinosaur diversity and ecospace occupancy in the area. This involved (1) a replacement of non-dinosaur guild members by opportunistic and omnivorous dinosaur precursors, followed by (2) the emergence of insect and fish-eating theropods and small omnivorous dinosaurs. Climate change in the latest Triassic5–7 resulted in substantial vegetation changes that paved the way for ((3) and (4)) an expansion of herbivore ecospace and the replacement of pseudosuchian and therapsid herbivores by large sauropodomorphs and early ornithischians that ingested food of a broader range, even including burnt plants. Finally, (5) theropods rapidly evolved and developed enormous sizes in response to the appearance of the new herbivore guild. We suggest that the processes shown by the Polish data may explain global patterns, shedding new light on the environmentally governed emergence of dinosaur dominance and gigantism that endured until the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08265-4

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