Gastric stones of dinosaurs were not for milling food !

[Gautam Majumdar <gmajumdar@freeuk.com>]

Saw this in ScienceDaily

"The giant dinosaurs had a problem. Many of them had narrow, pointed teeth, 
which were more suited to tearing off plants rather than chewing them. But 
how did they then grind their food? Until recently many researchers have 
assumed that they were helped by stones which they swallowed. In their 
muscular stomach these then acted as a kind of 'gastric mill'.

The heap of stones before a life-size model of Seismosaurus (the largest 
dinosaur model worldwide) in the Dino park Münchehagen corresponds to the 
number of stomach stones, which were found together with the gigantic 
sauropods. The size of the animal and the comparatively tiny number of 
stomach stones are an argument against the existence of a stomach mill in 
sauropods. (Photo Credit: Oliver Wings / Institute of Earth Sciences, 
University of Tübingen)

But this assumption does not seem to be correct, as scientists at the 
universities of Bonn and Tübingen have now proved. Their research findings 
can be found in the current issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal 
Society (doi:10.1098/rspb.2006.3763)."

Rest is here 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061220095421.htm

-- 

Gautam