2026-01-30 ユニバーシティ・カレッジ・ロンドン（UCL）
＜関連情報＞
- https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2026/jan/baby-dinosaurs-common-prey-late-jurassic-predators
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/400003503_HERE_SIZE_IS_NO_ACCIDENT_A_NOVEL_FOOD_WEB_ANALYSIS_OF_THE_DRY_MESA_DINOSAUR_QUARRY_AND_ECOLOGICAL_IMPACT_OF_MORRISON_FORMATION_SAUROPOD_FAUNA
「ここでは、大きさは偶然ではない」：ドライ・メサ恐竜採石場の新たな食物網分析とモリソン層の竜脚類動物相の生態学的影響 “HERE, SIZE IS NO ACCIDENT”: A NOVEL FOOD WEB ANALYSIS OF THE DRY MESA DINOSAUR QUARRY AND ECOLOGICAL IMPACT OF MORRISON FORMATION SAUROPOD FAUNA
Cassius Morrison,William Hart,Ezekiel O’Callaghan,Colin Boisvert,…
ResearchGate Published:January 2026
Abstract
The Morrison Formation is a well-preserved Upper Jurassic rock unit with a characteristic terrestrial fauna. Despite over a century of study, the complex ecological interactions remain poorly understood due to preservational bias. Understanding the complex food webs of the Morrison Formation, despite this bias, is important. The preserved biota remains one of the most unique and diverse from the terrestrial fossil record, and reconstructing ecological interactions across deep time remains understudied. Here we present the reconstructed trophic links and food web of Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry, a relatively well-preserved Morrison Formation ecosystem, using the R package cheddar. We recovered a complex food web with over 12,000 unique food chains. Sauropods had substantially more trophic interactions than their ornithischian counterparts, indicating a substantial and important role in the ecosystem. The ubiquity and diversity of sauropods throughout the ecosystem across deposition, combined with the large body size they attained, underscores their importance as ecosystem engineers. Reconstructing the food web of an extinct ecosystem is an important tool for understanding phylogeny and broader biological concepts, as it provides insight into how ancient organisms interacted, evolved, and influenced each other’s adaptations. By understanding trophic links and interactions, the ecological roles and evolutionary pressures that shaped species traits and lineages over time could potentially be determined. This novel food web is the first study of its kind to use trophic analysis to examine Morrison Formation ecological interactions, paving the way for other deep-time food web analyses.
