Re: Dinosaur parasites

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

David Marjanovic wrote:
> 
> > Could that have anything to do with the evolution of
> > grass?
> 
> Why?

I seem to remember that many intestinal parasites picked up by
herbivores are via eating grass with either eggs or larvae on it. Of
course, this could be true of almost any plant that has been
inadvertently 'fertilised' by another infected animal.

It would be interesting to compare the plant material in the infected
Iguanodon coprolites with that of other, apparently healthy coprolites
from other Iguanodontids (preferably from the same formation), to see
whether there were any dietary reasons for the infestation (such as
plants with poorer nutritional content that may indicate environmental
stress), or whether the infected animals ate plants not usually found in
healthy animals (ie. attempts at self-medication). See:

Lozano, G. A. 1991. Optimal foraging theory: a possible role for
parasites. Oikos 60: 391-395 
http://www.georgealozano.com/papers/mine/Lozano91Forage.pdf

Lozano, G. A. 1998. Parasitic stress and self-medication in wild
animals. In Møller, A. P., Milinski, M., and Slater, P. J. B. (Eds)
"Advances in the Study of Behavior" Vol.27, 'Stress and Behavior'.
Chapter 6, pp. 291-317. Academic Press (now "Elsevier Science"), London
http://www.georgealozano.com/papers/mine/Lozano98SelfMed.pdf

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist         http://heretichides.soffiles.com
Melbourne, Australia        http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
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