Found a species of dinosaurs that has sharply decreased in size

(ORDO NEWS) — Dinosaurs were enormous in size, but research on alvaressaurs some time ago showed that they only got smaller 100 million years ago. Zichuan Qin suggested that the unique diet that these animals were forced to adhere to could be the reason.

This is reported by Eurek Alert.

He measured the bodies of several dozen dinosaurs of this species and found that their average weight was 10-70 kg. They were the size of a turkey, or they could reach the size of a small ostrich. But after a while, their weight became very small, and the alvaressaurs themselves did not exceed the size of a chicken. This happened after the animals began to feed on ants.

This dinosaur species lived about 160-170 million years ago almost all over the world. They originally hunted the young of other dinosaurs, lizards, and mammals. Michael Benton suggested that eating habits could change over time due to the increased competition between animals.

The specialist also added that the study was very difficult due to the fact that it was required to prove the fact of maturation of individuals, the size of a chicken. Some of the skeletons were indeed young enough. Scientists were convinced of this when they cut the bones. But these dinosaurs were not included in the final calculations.

Xing Xu said that this is the second event of a decrease in size in the entire history of the existence of our planet. At a time when other dinosaurs only increased in size, alvaressaurs became smaller in order to begin to feed not on meat, but on termites.

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