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Science 7 October 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5745, p. 75
DOI: 10.1126/science.1117241
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Brevia

Bottom-Feeding Plesiosaurs

Colin R. McHenry,1* Alex. G. Cook,2 Stephen Wroe3

Elasmosaurid plesiosaurs were an important part of Cretaceous marine reptile communities and are generally considered to have been predators of small, agile, free-swimming fish and cephalopods. Two elasmosaurid specimens from Aptian and Albian deposits in Queensland, Australia, include fossilized gut contents dominated by benthic invertebrates: bivalves, gastropods, and crustaceans. Both specimens also contained large numbers of gastroliths (stomach stones). These finds point to a wider niche than has previously been supposed for these seemingly specialized predators and may also influence long-running controversy over the question of gastrolith function in plesiosaurs.

1 School of Environmental and Life Sciences (Geology) University of Newcastle, New South Wales 2308, Australia.
2 Geology, Queensland Museum, Post Office Box 3300, South Bank, Queensland 4101, Australia.
3 Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, Electron Microscope Unit, F09, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: colin.mchenry{at}newcastle.edu.au

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Life in a temperate Polar sea: a unique taphonomic window on the structure of a Late Cretaceous Arctic marine ecosystem.
K. Chin, J. Bloch, A. Sweet, J. Tweet, J. Eberle, S. Cumbaa, J. Witkowski, and D. Harwood (2008)
Proc R Soc B 275, 2675-2685
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