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

Cannibalism and Vegetarianism

[Anonymous Coward]

What, so far, has not been mentioned is whether the dinosaurs engaged in cannibalism like the Chinese. During the Cultural Revolution, numerous cases of cannibalism arose: the Chinese relished the taste of human flesh.

Under what circumstances would dinosaurs engage in cannibalism?

Let's eat the vegetarians...

[__aaclcg7560]

I hate it when vegetarians try shove their religion down the throats of meat eaters. No wonder these dinosaurs were so confused... I got claws to rip flesh but my stomach wants cabbage instead.

Re:Intelligent Design?

[Anonymous Coward]

find an inventor that doesn't tweaking a design to see how differently it behaves than the old one.

Have both meat and vegatibles...

[Anonymous Coward]

Eat Terry Schiavo

I have to disagree with that.

[i41Overlord]

I've known quite a few vegetarians and I can say they have 2 things in common:

1. They looked horrible, like a heroin junky. They had sunken in eyes and were built like a bag of bones.

2. They all thought they looked just *great* and healthier than everyone else.