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Lifestyle
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Mantellisaurus
was a herbivorous dinosaur, feeding on the plants, such as conifers,
cycads and tree-ferns that are found in the Wessex Formation. It
has been noted that Mantellisaurus is both quadrupedal and
bipedal, although trackway evidence suggests it favoured the former.
(More
info can be found at DinoWight Palaeoecology)
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Description
of Material
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(Don't
understand all the terminology? visit the Glossary)
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The teeth
can reach up to 40 mm (1½ inches) in height, and show an expanded
crown and fine denticulation. The teeth of different jaws have
different wear marks. On the upper jaw there is a prominent keel
in the labial (outer) surface, where as in the lower jaw
the teeth have two less prominent ridges on the lingual (inner)
surface. To simplify matters, this genus will be described twice,
once for each species.
Mantellisaurus
has a low skull, with a low angle to the articulation between the
dentary and predentary. A rostrally expanded beak gives it, when
viewed from above, an hourglass shaped head. Mantellisaurus had
a short thumbspike and elongate, gracile metacarpals. There were
3 phalanges in the forth and fifth digits. The forearms were only
50% of the length of the hindlimbs. The neural spines were fairly
tall, with ossified tendons arranged along them, and there may have
been a ridge along the back
How
do I know if I've found a bone?
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