Imre Szenti

55580262200

Publications - 3

Trophic evolution in ornithopod dinosaurs revealed by dental wear

Publication Name: Nature Communications

Publication Date: 2024-12-01

Volume: 15

Issue: 1

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Ornithopod dinosaurs evolved numerous craniodental innovations related to herbivory. Nonetheless, the relationship between occlusion, tooth wear rate, and tooth replacement rate has been neglected. Here, we reconstruct tooth wear rates by measuring tooth replacement rates and tooth wear volumes, and document their dental microwear. We demonstrate that total tooth volume and rates of tooth wear increased steadily during ornithopod evolution, with deeply-nested taxa wearing up to 3360 mm3 of tooth volume/day. Increased wear resulted in asymmetric tooth crown formation with uneven von Ebner line increment width by the Late Jurassic, and in faster tooth replacement rates in multiple lineages by the mid-Cretaceous. Microwear displays a contrasting pattern, with decreasing complexity and pit percentages in deeply-nested and later-occurring taxa. We hypothesize that early ornithopods were browsers and/or frugivores but deeply nested iguanodontians were bulk-feeders, eating tougher, less nutritious plants; these trends correlate with increasing body mass and longer gut passage times.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51697-9

Multi-proxy dentition analyses reveal niche partitioning between sympatric herbivorous dinosaurs

Publication Name: Scientific Reports

Publication Date: 2022-12-01

Volume: 12

Issue: 1

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Dentitions of the sympatric herbivorous dinosaurs Hungarosaurus (Ankylosauria, Nodosauridae) and Mochlodon (Ornithopoda, Rhabdodontidae) (Santonian, Hungary) were analysed to investigate their dietary ecology, using several complementary methods—orientation patch count, tooth replacement rate, macrowear, tooth wear rate, traditional microwear, and dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA). Tooth formation time is similar in Hungarosaurus and Mochlodon, and traditional and DMTA microwear features suggest low-browsing habits for both taxa, consistent with their inferred stances and body sizes. However, Mochlodon possesses a novel adaptation for increasing dental durability: the dentine on the working side of the crown is double the thickness of that on the balancing side. Moreover, crown morphology, enamel thickness, macrowear orientation, and wear rate differ greatly between the two taxa. Consequently, these sympatric herbivores probably exploited plants of different toughness, implying dietary selectivity and niche partitioning. Hungarosaurus is inferred to have eaten softer vegetation, whereas Mochlodon likely fed on tougher material. Compared to the much heavier, quadrupedal Hungarosaurus, the bipedal Mochlodon wore down more than twice as much of its crown volume during the functional life of the tooth. This heavy tooth wear might correlate with more intensive food processing and, in turn, could reflect differences in the metabolic requirements of these animals.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-24816-z

New data on terrestrial gastropods (Gastropoda: Cyclophoroidea) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, with descriptions of two new species in the genus Euthema (Diplommatinidae)

Publication Name: Zoosystematica Rossica

Publication Date: 2025-01-01

Volume: 34

Issue: 2

Page Range: 336-353

Description:

Mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber preserves an exceptionally diverse assemblage of operculate land snails. Here, two new diplommatinid species are described: Euthema convexispira Bichain et Páll-Gergely, sp. nov. and Eu. torokzselenszkyi Páll-Gergely et Szabó, sp. nov. Newly found specimens of two previously known species, Hirsuticyclus canaliculatus Yu, 2022 and Cretadiostoma caperatum Yu, Zhuo et Páll-Gergely, 2023, are described and illustrated; the specimen of the former is characterised by a distinctive spiral operculum, while that of the latter provides additional data on the morphology of the aperture and the proportions of the shell whorls. Furthermore, the article reports three specimens that are tentatively attributed here to the species Euthema cf. annae Balashov, 2021 and to the genera Euthema Yu, Wang et Pan, 2018 and Pulchraspira Yu, Salvador et Jarzembowski, 2021.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.31610/ZSR/2025.34.2.336