Newfound Dinosaur Shows Transition in Diet

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Beowulf

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"Caught in the act of evolution, the odd-looking, feathered dinosaur was becoming more vegetarian, moving away from its meat-eating ancestors. It had the built-for-speed legs of meat-eaters, but was developing the bigger belly of plant-eaters. It had already lost the serrated teeth needed for tearing flesh. Those were replaced with the smaller, duller vegetarian variety.
'I seriously doubt this animal could cut a steak with that mouth,' said Utah palentologist James Kirkland, one of those describing the animal, based on bones in east-central Utah..."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DINOSAUR_DIET?SITE=NYBUE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

BTW, this had copywrite laws and I got in touch with them for permission to have it reprinted here. I got their permission, but they warned that the article will archive soon , so I suggest printing it out, to those parents with dinosaur freaks. :)
 
Wow, it's interesting when they find in between creatures like these.
 
Digging in the badlands of east central Utah on a tip from a repentant poacher, researchers have unearthed the fossil remains of a dinosaur "missing link" -- a primitive plant-eater that had recently evolved from the carnivorous raptors that also produced modern birds.
The long-tailed dinosaur ate plants but had the big-bellied body of a meat-eater gone to seed, a made-to-order victim for any passing marauder -- except for the powerful, ropy arms and the 4-inch talons on the ends of its forepaws.

"They probably used the claws for self-defense," Utah state paleontologist James Kirkland said. "Or maybe they were herding animals who just hung out together and hoped the predators would eat someone else."

The discovery of Falcarius utahensis, or "sickle-maker from Utah," so named because of the claws, supports earlier research linking the plant-eating dinosaurs known as therizinosaurs to the raptors, but also opens the possibility that therizinosaurs may have originated in North America rather than Asia, as previous evidence had suggested.

The findings are being reported in the today's edition of the journal Nature.

"It's an extremely significant find," said Matthew Lamanna, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History who was not a member of the Utah team.

"Before this discovery, the oldest known animal recognized as a therizinosaur came from China, and this one is just as old and seems to be more primitive anatomically. It appears to be the final piece of the puzzle."

Kirkland said that he first became aware of Falcarius in 1999, when colleagues showed him a box of bone fragments they had bought at a fossil show in Tucson, Ariz. The bones supposedly came from "private land," Kirkland said. It is illegal to excavate fossils on public land without a permit.

Kirkland said he tried "over a number of years" to ascertain the location of the site and finally got directions from an acquaintance of the excavator. When Kirkland still couldn't find it, Lawrence Walker, anxious to see his discovery properly recognized, admitted his role and guided him in.

In rugged country about 140 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, Kirkland found the jumbled remains of "hundreds, perhaps thousands" of Falcarius embedded in a two-acre stretch of pebbly, 120-million year old mudstone on a mesa top once washed by the waters of an ancient spring.

Source: http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/...-Ate-Plants/story.xhtml?story_id=011000MDRKX7
 
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