Re: Gastric stones of dinosaurs were not for milling food !

[Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com>]

Martin Baeker writes:
 > >>how much food would they be able to gather -- 200kg? 
 > 
 > --------------- Relative to maximum acquisition capability *and*
 > daily nutritional requirements-- don't know, that was one reason
 > for the original post; to my surprise, no one has come up with
 > numbers or references. Surely someone has made a jaw-model to
 > constrain possible acquisition of leaf/mass per day by large
 > sauros, but so far, I can't find their work. But yes, 200 kg seems
 > do-able to me from the very rough estimates I have made.

I'm coming in half-way through this (I can't face the holiday-period
email backlog) so apologies if this has been mentioned, but Weaver
1983 took a stab at quantifying sauropod ingestion rates and the
nutritive value of the food:

        Weaver, Jan.  1983.  The Improbable Endotherm - The
        Energetics of Brachiosaurus.  Paleobiology 9(2):
        173-182.

It's well worth a read, despite some flaws.

 _/|_    ___________________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor    <mike@indexdata.com>    http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
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