The Tooth is Out There...Again! In past years, we have found teeth from a variety of Jurassic plant-eating dinosaurs. Among the Sauropods, teeth have been found from Camarasaurus, Apatosaurus and Diplodocus. It's time for some show & tell on teeth from the Sauropods:
Camarasaurus’ 54-56 spoon-shaped teeth have a spatulate shape.
Many show a distinctive wear pattern indicating that this Jurassic Sauropod dinosaur ate coarse plant material.
Apatosaurus had about 56 teeth which are more pencil-shaped teeth. Its teeth were used for raking and swallowing leaves and vegetation whole.
Apatosaurus swallowed small gizzard stones called gastroliths to aid in digesting coarse plant material.
Diplodocus is known for its peg-like teeth, which were only clustered in the front of the mouth.
Diplodocus used its teeth to strip leaves off of plants. The plant material was then swallowed whole. This dinosaur, like other Sauropods, used gastroliths to aid in digestion.
Gastroliths are small stones swallowed by Sauropods to help digest the plant material they ate.
We find these smooth, isolated and often very shiny stones in the matrix near where Sauropod material has been discovered.
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Camarasaurus’ 54-56 spoon-shaped teeth have a spatulate shape.
Apatosaurus had about 56 teeth which are more pencil-shaped teeth. Its teeth were used for raking and swallowing leaves and vegetation whole.
Diplodocus is known for its peg-like teeth, which were only clustered in the front of the mouth.
