From Carnivore to Herbivore

smooth wombat wrote in to mention an a recent discovery in the field of evolutionary biology. From the article: "A surprising discovery in Utah has paleontologists scratching their heads and asking: Why would a carnivore evolve a herbivorous diet? The species, christened Falcarius utahensis, belongs to a dinosaur group called the therizinosauroids. These are mostly thought to have been plant eaters. But the recently discovered fossil, the most primitive therizinosauroid found so far, seems to have survived on a mixed diet of meat and vegtables...The switch to vegetarianism is surprising, says Paul Barrett, who studies dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum in London. The therizinosauroids belong to a larger group of dinosaurs known as theropods, and many of these are known to have been excellent at catching a meaty meal. "

Comments

Why is this so confusing?

[Lordfly]

In biology class, one of the things you learn is that plants have the most energy-to-size ratio (i forget the actual term). Then you have the primary group of animals (cows, rabbits, anything that eats plants), then the first tier of carnivores (animals that eat the plant eaters), then you have another tier that eats the first tier of carnivores (us, generally).

As you go up the food chain, you get less energy from the meat.

So perhaps this animal simply decided that munching on grass was more efficient than killing a T-rex?

Josh

Re:Why is this so confusing?

[EtherAlchemist]

Another thing learned in basic biology is that an animal, when faced with starvation, will eat what it can, when it can. If the supply of smaller meaty dinos was dwindling or the range of the Falcarius expanded into an area were there were more plants than animals, and the plants could be eaten- then why not?

This isn't a new or even novel behaviour- cats and dogs are generally considered carnivores thought both will eat plants to get nutrients and fiber when they need them.

People are the same way- we evolved eating meat most of the year and plants when meat was scarce. We (and many other animals) CAN eat both because we're built that way.

Re:Why is this so confusing?

[superpulpsicle]

If it tastes like chicken, why not just eat chicken. Why get all exotic over the same taste.

Carnivorous isn't superior

[vlad_petric]

For example, "lions can spend as much time as 20 hours per day sleeping" -- wikipedia. At the same time, a gnu antilope (not GNU/Antilope) needs only about 6 hours of sleep per night. And yes, this is because of their diet.

Furthermore, the chain for a carnivore is simply longer by one (plants->herbivores->carnivore)

Re:Carnivorous isn't superior

[Farmer Tim]

Required sleep time isn't really a measure of superiority; perhaps lions sleep up to 20 hours a day because they can.

Two simple reasons.

[khasim]

Why evolve to eat plants and animals? I dunno, but it works for me too!

Potatoes don't run fast or put up much of a fight.

A given amount of land can support more grazers than carnivores.

Switching to an omnivorous diet means that there will be more of them.

Re:Not that surprising.

[xenocide2]

Humans, incidentally, have been natural herbivores for hundreds of thousands of years

Ah yes, you bring to mind the ancient cave paintings of carrots, apples and bottled water. Your statement is further backed up by general recommendations that modern strict vegetarians take vitamin supplments to alleviate the deficiencies in Vitamins B12 and D.

Odd

[Wrexs0ul]

Which is the ultimate joke seeing as how we were made in his image, yet considering all our views on the subject obviously not his sense of humour.

Holy mental seg. fault batman.

-Matt