Doctor Curmudgeon® I Would Never Eat a Baby Dinosaur!
By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist
Once upon a time, around seventy five million years ago, a young Gorgosaurus Libratus roamed the planet.
The youngster was a predator and he was a type of tyrannosaur.
The juvenile tipped the scales at over seven hundred pounds…ten percent of what he would weigh when he reached adulthood.
And now (Fanfare) we know what this tyrannosaur ate!
Katie Hunt writes in CNN, “Researchers have found a tyrannosaur’s last meal perfectly preserved inside its stomach cavity.
“What was on the menu 75 million years ago? The hind legs of two baby dinosaurs, according to new research on the fossil published…in the journal Science Advances.”
Canadian paleontologists unearthed the skeleton and had the rare opportunity to peer into the fossilized stomach cavity.
As the scientists excitedly took their first glimpse into the stomach, they found the bones of toes.
On further study, these digits turned out to be from a small bird-like dinosaur, a young Citipes.
So the juvenile Gorgosaurus Libratus was definitely a carnivore. No doubt about it.
Dr. Francois Therrien, curator of dinosaur palaeoeocology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum studied the well preserved contents of this youngster’s stomach. He commented, “Lo and behold, the complete hind legs of two baby dinosaurs, both under a year old, were present in its stomach.”
This carnivorous teen ager had likely chosen the hind legs as they were the juiciest and meatiest part of the poor baby dinosaur.
The scientists went on to learn that the remains of the dinosaurs were from babies less than one year old.
And they didn’t swallow these little dinosaurs whole; they just bit off their hind legs. With their nice sharp teeth they could easily dismember their prey.
However, once the youngsters became adults, their diets would change. The adult Gorgosaurus was strong enough and had sufficient strength in his bite to chomp away at megaherbivore dinosaurs.
But while they were still juveniles, their Gorgosaurus parents could sit back and not worry about the young’uns being able to take care of their food intake.
And I have no doubt that the adults had no concerns about the young Gorgosaurus satisfying his nutritional requirements.
Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.
Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon
Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.
SERMO www.sermo.com
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