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[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"39839","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","alt":"stegosaurus"}}]]This "Never Stop Asking Why" question was submitted by Abby, age 5, and is answered by Natural Science Curator and Paleontologist Dallas Evans.
Why does the stegosaurus only eat plants?
The stegosaurus was such a cool dinosaur. It had neat plates and spikes covering its tail, back, and neck that made it look very distinctive. But it was also a plant eating machine!
It had a toothless beak for nipping low lying plants like ferns, cycads, and pines. But strangely enough, it probably didn’t eat grasses. Grasses hadn’t really developed on earth yet. Stegosaurus also had little cheek teeth that helped it to chop the plants up a little.
Not only did this dinosaur gulp down lots and lots of plants, it probably swallowed rocks too. Eating rocks would help the dinosaur digest the tough plants in its diet. These stones (called gastroliths) would tumble around inside the stegosaur helping to break up the plants and provide more nutrients.
The rocks would then (here’s where I mentally insert a slide whistle sound)…come out the other end.
Looking for more Never Stop Asking "Why?" questions? Catch up on all of the past "Why's" on the blog!
