Overview
- The UCL‑led study, published January 30 in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, reconstructs a Late Jurassic food web from Colorado’s Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry.
- Multi‑proxy evidence—including tooth enamel chemistry, microscopic tooth wear, fossilized stomach contents, body‑size estimates and biomechanical analyses—was integrated with ecological software used for modern ecosystems.
- The reconstruction generated more than 12,000 possible food chains, identifying a densely linked network in which the long‑necked herbivores occupied central positions.
- Infant and juvenile individuals of these giants were abundant, largely unguarded and slow moving, making them the most common resource for theropods such as Torvosaurus, Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Marshosaurus and Stokesosaurus.
- The authors propose that later declines in such vulnerable prey may help explain adaptations seen tens of millions of years afterward in predators like Tyrannosaurus rex.