Were Troodontids Actually Omnivorous?

Troodontids have often been suggested as omnivores, but there's been a lack of really solid evidence. New isotope data suggests yes, they were! And also a lot of other interesting things about food webs in the late Cretaceous.
Read the paper here:
pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/...
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[@seanmckelvey6618]

Given how different "troodontid" teeth can look between different species it's probably the case that the degree of omnivory varied as well.

[@vincentx2850]

If we can confirm Troodontids are omnivores with a strong inclination towards herbivory, then naturally next question to ask is what plants were they actually eating. The isotopic feature of them were quite weird to say the least. Modern omnivores often focus on fruits and seeds, as they are nutritionally dense and easy to digest. For instance, the availability of pine nuts is the No. 1 factor that determines how much animals brown bears consume. But I'm not sure how much fruit is available and how stable that availability is in the late Cretaceous world, or how those strange teeth may help Troodontids crack seeds.

[@janetchennault4385]

This makes me want to ask if there is a particular isotopic profile that is linked to 'brown bears eating pine nuts'. Pine nuts are, after all, a point of similarity between the Cretaceous and modern times. Hmmm and brown bears are certainly a nicely omnivorous species...

[@thenerdbeast7375]

The larger denticles and hypocarnivore tendency most likely suggests greenery was a large part of their diet, though they probably favored more tender leaves and shoots than stems and branches. Of course they ate seeds and fruit when available but salad was likely most of their plant food.

[@Unovan_aerodactyl]

I speculate that troodontids had a similar diet to corvids

[@kyrab7914]

I feel like you might have to run those modern day comparisons through some of those squish em and see if they line up with ancient isotopes tests. That said, it is a lot of work. My question is: if they all had such different teeth, maybe they were eating different things not just from other groups, but from each other?

[@fmac6441]

3:42 Obviously, agreeing with your observation at the end, it seems to me that more than them being omnivores, what is surprising is that apparently they are in the in the "primary consumption being plants" category. But they're right on the edge, maybe I'm understanding the graph wrong

[@RaptorChatter]

No, that would be right, but the error bars are fairly large, so it's hard to say, an potentially they were feeding on plants more at times of the year when flooding was more common, leading to a slightly altered signal. It's hard to know for sure, so just saying omnivory is probably the best bet.

[@patreekotime4578]

Thank you for pointing out that this is not settled. Too many people are running with this as absolute proof of omnivory/partial herbivory. But bumpy teeth could really easily just be for crunching up small bones or insect carapaces as for processing plant matter. I think about how animals adapted for eating shellfish often have rounded teeth and dermal plates on their palettes. And like you say, if they are consuming the animals whole, including their prey's gut contents, then that may shift their scores towards omnivory compared to animals that are mostly eating muscle tissue.

[@seanmckelvey6618]

It's not settled, & I also don't understand why some are acting like the possibility of Troodontids being omnivorous is some sort of world changing revelation. It's not even a new idea.

[@Mr.Estiverne]

Those who grew up with Dinosaur Train knew this for years Edit: 0:57 didn’t expect it to actually be mentioned lol

[@LonganNguyen762]

​@CastortheMudwingSame

[@gattycroc8073]

love the amount of dinosaurs featured on that show.

[@nathancomixproductions466]

@CastortheMudwing me too

[@whiteegretx]

Did you comment before you watched a 6 minute video?

[@RaptorChatter]

Yeah, we have a 4 year old at home, so it comes up every now and then

[@rkozakand]

The double O in Greek and Latin are NOT pronounced "U". each is pronounced O, seperately. They are two syllables. It is not Trudontid, but Troh-ohdontid.

[@TheaSvendsen]

Nobody knows how anything is pronounced in Latin because it’s a so-called “dead” language. That means that we’ve discovered (and translated) the language after it was no longer spoken by people.

[@rkozakand]

@@TheaSvendsen Untrue. Latin has been in common use for many centuries, and has never stopped being used. It was NOT rediscovered from archaeological remains. There have been changes in pronunciation at various points in time, but these are well known. The orthagraphic rule of oo = u is ONLY found in English, it is not used in ANY other language. When using latin based words one must at least leave behind the unique traits of ones own language. Correct pronunciation is easy to find if one uses a modicum of effort.

[@zombiedad]

Wow. The work and techniques used in this is super cool. Nice work Raptor Chatter

[@posticusmaximus1739]

Omg all my favorite paleotubers are posting new content!!!!

[@brianedwards7142]

I don't know what habitats they lived in but those teeth make me think of basal baleen whale teeth (before they evolved baleen) so maybe Troodontids were filtering mud akin to modern flamingos.

[@shinaniganz4453]

Dinosaur train mentioned 😁

[@lh3540]

Slightly off topic, but now I'm pondering how human food imports would change geographic isotopes, and possibly those of animals that raid our trash.

[@thenerdbeast7375]

In rebuttal to the swallowing whole point, likely all carnivorous dinosaurs did that if the prey was small enough so we'd probably see similar results among the dromeosaurs as well as they probably ate similar sized animals to the troodontids.

[@bkjeong4302]

We’ve already had a lot of reasons to think many (though not all) troodontids were omnivorous, though them reaching the point where they were more herbivorous than carnivorous is a surprise. Even the actually carnivorous troodontids were all specialized for hunting relatively small prey, which is a significant difference from derived dromaeosaurids that were more equipped to tackle prey closer to themselves in size (or larger in some cases), with far more formidable jaws and teeth as well as much larger sickle claws and more robust limbs that sacrificed some speed for strength and dexterity.

[@Devin_Stromgren]

Holy shit Minnesota is a mishmash on that map.

[@user-is8jw5lc6n]

The narrator man is attractive

[@1998topornik]

If they were omnivorous it would seem they fitted niche similar to the modern foxes.

[@hare6663]

my thoughts exactly! if most brontosaurs are like wolf-hawks, itd be neat (and niche wise kind of make sense) if troodontids are kinda like fox-owls? troodontid news is always so exciting to me!

[@Evergreen_Wizard]

@@hare6663In my tabletop world I call dromaeosaurs “wolf-hawks” and troodontids “crowfoxes”

[@trentenmerrill5239]

Let's fuckin go bebe!

[@maozilla9149]

well if its true

[@DrBunnyMedicinal]

Comment to appease The Algorithm. 👍

[@Shaden0040]

Tro odont nir tru dinr

[@yellowflowerorangeflower5706]

Cool

[@EmilySmirleGURPS]

I'm a little bit confused why you present the evidence of meat in its diet as evidence against ominvory in this group. Isn't eating meat part of the definition of omnivory? I didn't think it being vertebrate or invertebrate mattered. Obviously eating plants is the other part of the definition, it's just strange that you seem to be presenting evidence that it ate meat and hunted as contradicting the proposition.

[@RaptorChatter]

Not directly against, rather the gut contents could add to the plant bias in the signal they're getting based on the isotopes. So it could be contributing to amount of plants the isotopes saying they're eating plants. It wouldn't be solely responsible for the signal, but could make the amount of plants eaten seem more significant than it otherwise would be.

[@patreekotime4578]

Its just that it is largely assumed that ominivores are less likely to have adaptations specific to hunting. If your dietary needs can be fulfilled by browsing, it is less likely you will have specific hunting adaptations. Not impossible, just less likely. If they are omnivores, these suggested hunting adaptations may be false signals. But it could just as easily be that the factors that suggest partial herbivory are false signals. The rounded, lumpy ridges on their teeth are suggested to be for processing plant matter or even seeds.... but they could just as easily be for crunching up small bones. The isotope ratios could be because they are directly consuming the guts of small herbivores, and thus skewing those scores towards partial herbivory.

[@panzer00]

They're a huge problem when they jump me, knock me out, dance on my body and then eat me alive.

[@Sirdilophosaurusthethird2.0]

Da ark reference!?

[@AgroAcro]

I think it would be cool if they were omnivorous. It would make them more unique.

[@nathancomixproductions466]

I agree, and for good reason. I've always believed the troodontids (family Troodontidae) were omnivorous, which means they could eat just about anything, meat or plant.