By Will DunhamWASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – It may have been suicidal for a predator to go after a healthy adult Brachiosaurus, a behemoth weighing perhaps 60 tons that was a member of the long-necked group of dinosaurs called sauropods that included the largest land animals ever on Earth.But, as new research shows, Brachiosaurus and other sauropod babies appear to have been regular dinner fare for meat-eating dinosaurs 150 million years ago. Using multiple lines of evidence, scientists reconstructed the food web for a Jurassic Period ecosystem represented by the numerous fossils unearthed at the Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry in southwestern Colorado, mapping out who ate what and who ate whom.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe ecosystem was teeming with life, with at least six types of sauropods, known for their long necks, small heads, four pillar-like legs and lengthy tails, and five types of meat-eating dinosaurs. There also were various other plant-eating dinosaurs as well as flying reptiles called pterosaurs, smaller reptiles, early mammals, crocs, fish and insects.The researchers concluded that baby and young juvenile sauropods were the most common food source for the meat-eating dinosaurs at the top of the food chain.”These sauropods would have been high in abundance compared to larger adult sauropods and were relatively defenseless and slow-moving, hence easy to catch and a perfect snack,” said paleontologist Cassius Morrison, a postdoctoral researcher at University College London and lead author of the study published in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science …
