long neck baby dinosaur It could have been Jurassic fast food. Detailed food webs reconstructed from fossil data show that young, not yet gigantic individuals were almost solely responsible for the region’s predator populations.

It has an elephant-like body and an incredibly long neck and tail. sauropod is one of the most iconic types dinosaur. They include: largest land animal And most of it was probably put to good use as protection from predators.

But it takes a long time to grow to that point, and very few people make it. In fact, baby sauropods were so rare that they may have been one of the richest food sources for Jurassic predators. After all, why fight Spikey? stegosaurus For dinner just in time to pick up the baby. Brachiosaurus Are you on your way home?

“Due to their size alone, it would have been difficult for sauropods to care for their eggs without destroying them, and there is evidence that young sauropods were not cared for by their parents in the same way that baby turtles are today.” say Cassius Morrison, paleoecologist at University College London.

“Life was cheap in this ecosystem; Allosaurus It was probably stimulated by the consumption of these sauropod babies. ”

Researchers have examined one of the most detailed ecological snapshots of the prehistoric world. Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry It contains thousands of fossils of dozens of species from the Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago.

Starting with existing data about what different animals might have eaten, scientists mapped out complex food webs, all possible connections between predators, prey, and plants that were in the area at the time.

They found that sauropods had far more chain connections than other major herbivorous dinosaur clades. ornithischian. This is probably because ornithischians were difficult to eat. Why fight with the spiny tails of ornithischians? stegosaurus or full body armor gargoyle leosaurus When there were just bits and pieces of sauropods roaming everywhere, relatively unprotected and unmonitored?

But the most interesting observation from the food web study was that this rich, easy diet could explain why evolution seems to have stalled a bit. Top predators at the time were smaller and less powerful than the more notorious predators that would arrive tens of millions of years later. tyrannosaurus rex.

The number of sauropods that lived during this period declined. tyrannosaurusIt’s time, but I don’t even go to the grocery store. tyrannosaurus you have to do things the hard way, big sizebetter vision, and incredible strong bite force This is to help take down large prey like three-horned fish that may fight back. triceratops.

Related: Baby pterosaur killed in violent storm, 150 million-year mystery solved

“Apex predator of the late Jurassic period, allosaurus or torbosaurusIt may have been easier to obtain food than in Japan. tyrannosaurus Millions of years later, say William Hurt, paleontologist at Hofstra University, USA.

This study Bulletin of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.