'Vegetarian' Dinos Made Exception for Shellfish, Poop Study Shows

By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | September 21, 2017 09:26am ET

Certain giant, herbivorous dinosaurs didn't eat just plants — they also chowed down on rotten logs harboring shellfish, a new study finds.

Researchers made this startling dietary discovery after examining 10 different specimens of fossilized dinosaur dung, known as coprolites, from the Kaiparowits Formation of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah.

"If we had found just one coprolite with crustacean pieces in it, that would have been interesting," said study lead researcher Karen Chin, an associate professor and a curator of paleontology at the University of Colorado Boulder. "But the fact that we found coprolites that spread out over at least 20 kilometers [12 miles] at different stratigraphic levels — that really strengthens our evidence for this being a behavior that these dinosaurs engaged in."

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Tool-wielding monkeys push local shellfish to edge of extinction

19 September 2017

By Aylin Woodward

HUMANS aren’t the only primate to have pushed their prey towards extinction. Monkeys have also over-exploited animals for food.

Long-tailed macaques forage for shellfish on islands off Thailand, then crack them open with stone tools. They target the largest rock oysters, bludgeoning them with stone hammers, and pry open the meatiest snail and crab shells with the flattened edges of their tools.

These macaques are one of three primates that use stone tools, alongside chimpanzees in Africa and bearded capuchins in South America. “Stone tools open up an opportunity for foods they otherwise wouldn’t even be able to harvest,” says Lydia Luncz at the University of Oxford.

Luncz wanted to investigate the impact of the monkeys’ shellfish snacking on the prey themselves. Her team followed 18 macaques on their daily foraging routes along the shores of Koram and NomSao, two neighbouring islands off eastern Thailand, recording their tool selection and use. On Koram – the more densely populated island, home to 80 macaques compared with NomSao’s nine – Luncz’s group saw not only smaller oysters and snails, but also fewer of each species. Multiple prey species were less abundant on Koram than NomSao, with four times as many tropical periwinkles on NomSao as on Koram (eLife, doi.org/cc7d).

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Fishermen help clear lobster 'carnage' on east coast

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

By Danny Longhorn

A TEAM of 25 fishermen has come to the rescue of about 450 lobsters washed up on an east coast beach.

East Yorkshire's coastal wildlife has taken a battering with the cold temperatures and strong easterly winds.

Thousands of shellfish, fish and even a porpoise were found washed up along a one-mile stretch between Barmston and Fraisthorpe – the majority of which had starved to death.

RSPB volunteers have also picked up 200 dead puffins in the last ten days and now fear the population could have decreased by 10 per cent.

Jo Ackes, secretary at the Independent Shell Fishermens' Cooperative in Bridlington, said more than 25 fishermen tried to save as many of the shellfish as possible.

She said: "It was carnage on the beach with thousands of different animals.

"There was everything from a variety of fish and crabs, lobsters and even seabirds and a porpoise.

"We tried to save as many as possible and take them to our tanks. It was mainly some of the lobsters that had survived as they are a bit stronger.

"The reason (for them being there) was a combination of factors with the sea being unseasonably cold and the lobsters being quite lethargic and not getting enough food. They have also been battered by the easterly winds and huge tides."

In the end, about 450 lobsters were released off the coast yesterday morning about six miles out to sea.

Jo said: "It is difficult to say what impact it will have.

Read more: http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/Fishermen-help-clear-lobster-carnage-east-coast/story-18595831-detail/story.html#ixzz2PW4qeIJX

Scientists Predict Impact of Ocean Acidification On Shellfish

ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2012) — An international study to understand and predict the likely impact of ocean acidification on shellfish and other marine organisms living in seas from the tropics to the poles is published this week (date) in the journal Global Change Biology.

Ocean acidification is occurring because some of the increased carbon dioxide humans are adding to the atmosphere dissolves in the ocean and reacts with water to produce an acid.

The results suggest that increased acidity is affecting the size and weight of shells and skeletons, and the trend is widespread across marine species. These animals are an important food source for marine predators such as tropical seabirds and seals as well as being a valuable ingredient in human food production. Consequently, these changes are likely to affect humans and the ocean's large animals.

UK scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), together with colleagues from Australia's James Cook and Melbourne Universities and the National University of Singapore, investigated the natural variation in shell thickness and skeletal size in four types of marine creatures living in 12 different environments from the tropics to the Polar Regions. Their aim was to get a clearer understanding of similarities and differences between species, and to make better predictions of how these animals might respond to increasing acidity in the oceans.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120806085240.htm