Re: Dinosaur parasites

["Robert J. Schenck" <nygdan@yahoo.com>]

--- Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au> wrote:

> I seem to remember that many intestinal
> parasites picked up by
> herbivores are via eating grass with either
> eggs or larvae on it. 
There is, for example, a species of parasite that
infects ants, and "takes over" their behaviour. 
It makes them crawl to the top of grass blades
and cling on with their pinchers, to make them
more likely to get eaten by grazzing cattle (the
next step in the parasite life cycle).  In fact,
this organism is so specific that it will
'relinquish' control during noon-time, when the
sun is very high, so that the ant can return to
normal behaviour to avoid dying from the heat.

> It would be interesting to compare the plant
> material in the infected
> Iguanodon coprolites with that of other,
> apparently healthy coprolites
> from other Iguanodontids
[...]snip
>(ie. attempts at
> self-medication).

Or even to get a better idea of mesozoic
ecosystems. Often parasites are species specific
too.  If the droppings can be correlated
reasonably to a population, then it might be
possible to determine how many species were in
that population, by looking at species of the
parasite (of course, sometimes the parasite
species are 'cryptic' also).  Or it might even be
possible to look at the parasite as markers of
different species between formations.

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