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gastrolith |
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gastrolithStone that was once part of the digestive system of a dinosaur or other extinct animal. Rock fragments were swallowed to assist in the grinding process in the dinosaur digestive tract, much as some birds now swallow grit and pebbles to grind food in their crop. Once the animal has decayed, smooth round stones remain - often the only clue to their past use is the fact that they are geologically different from their surrounding strata. |
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| The digestive tracts of both plesiosaurs also contained dozens of gastroliths, stones that paleontologists speculate were used to grind up hard-shelled prey and thereby aid digestion. New analyses of the gastroliths in ostriches are casting doubt on that theory. Those clues include gastroliths, or stomach stones, that would have ground ingested vegetation to a pulp. |
Gastroliths
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