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The world of dinosaurs is often a mystery to us. After all, they lived millions of years ago, and we live in the 21st century. Over time, however, we’ve learned more and more about dinosaurs – especially about their diet.
Plant-eating dinosaurs primarily feasted on tall ferns and grasses, various types of moss, massive evergreen trees, and various flowers. What the dinosaurs ate depended heavily on what was available during the season. A winter diet looked different than a spring diet.
This article will examine the foods most commonly eaten by plant-eating dinosaurs. We'll look at when they would eat specific foods and how the seasons affected their diet. We'll also examine any other foods these dinos may have ingested. Check out our collection of dinosaur gifts.
What did plant-eating dinosaurs eat?
Plant-eating dinosaurs had a wide buffet available to them most of the time – much more so than their carnivore cousins. We can also see this reflected in our current world. Herbivores nearly always have more food resources available to them than carnivores.
This is a major benefit since many herbivore dinosaurs were massive. Larger dinosaurs needed more food, as you can imagine.
So, what did these dinosaurs primarily enjoy? The answer to that depends on what time of the year it was and the area in which they lived. Let’s look at some of the most common foods below, however.
In the time of dinosaurs, ferns were some of the most common plants available for consumption. They grew nearly everywhere, and they grew quite large during this time. Even today, in certain forests that get a lot of rain, you can see ferns that grow more than ten feet (3.05 meters) in height.
Ferns also had a ton of leaves. The leaves took time to chew, meaning that these plant-eating dinosaurs had to fully break down their food in their mouth before swallowing – thus assisting with the digestive process and giving them energy for longer periods.
Ferns were also packed full of nutrients for the dinos. This was generally their primary source for those that roamed the tropical forests of South America and Asia.
Many fern fossils have been found in conjunction with dinosaur bones, indicating that they spent much of their time near the ferns.
When it comes to grasses, you can think of plant-eating dinosaurs as giant cows. In addition to fern eating, these massive herbivores spent plenty of time gnawing on whatever grass was readily available for the season.
In the forests, grasses don’t grow as well, so they would often wander out into more open areas. Fields and meadows were perfect for finding tasty grasses and flowers.
All grasses are edible – for people and dinosaurs – so this was a fairly reliable food source for the dinos. In excessively cold environments, they would be forced to rely on other options, but in general, they could find grass.
The downside for the dinosaurs is that even a large swathe of grass quickly disappeared when more than a couple of dinosaurs were feeding. Because herbivores frequently moved in herds, this sometimes created issues.
Evergreen trees were some of the best options for dinosaurs who lived in colder environments. Because these trees didn’t lose their leaves when temperatures cooled down, the dinosaurs could continue to eat throughout the winter.
Primarily, plant-eating dinosaurs looked for conifers. Conifers are trees or bushes that produce cones. For example, pine trees are a type of conifer. The seed-bearing cones provided additional nutrients for the dinosaurs.
Although dinos sometimes ate from evergreen trees, especially when food was sparse, it certainly wasn't a favorite for most of them. The hard needles could cause cuts in their mouths, making them difficult to chew.
To consume evergreen trees, the dinosaur would typically either need to swallow the needles mostly whole or chew for long periods.
Mosses were a great supplemental food source for herbivore dinosaurs. It typically wasn’t used as a substantial food, however.
Moss is very lightweight, and it was challenging to remove from rocks and the ground in most cases – especially for the dinosaurs, most of whom were quite large.
However, many mosses grew directly on the ground and were easily removed with a simple pull of the teeth. These mosses were often eaten in addition to ferns. These mosses grew quite well in the shade of large ferns and were readily available. In addition, the mosses likely had a bit sweeter flavor than the ferns. Dessert anyone?
If you've never eaten a flower, you’re missing out. The dinosaurs knew this, and flowers were one of their favorite treats.
Flowers could often be found growing in the meadows interspersed among the tall grasses the dinosaurs would munch on. They could also be found on various bushes and trees.
For the dinosaurs, flowers were a special sweet treat. They were soft and fruity and gave the dinosaur a decent amount of nutritional value.
However, flowers were only readily available in certain areas and at specific times of the year. Unless the dinos lived in a completely tropical environment, it was challenging to find them year-round.
Like other animals, dinosaurs preferred to stay near water when they could. This meant a lot of eating of plants that grew near water.
Some of these plants included cattails, lilies, and club mosses.
The dinosaurs would often feast on swamp plants when they were in a stable environment. These plants grew quickly and often were abundant near water sources. This gave them plenty of food, at least until they needed to migrate to a new area.
The downside to the dinosaurs eating these plants is that most of them were fairly small. This means they had to eat significantly more to get the nutrition and energy they needed to keep them going.
Gingkoes were some of the first trees to appear during the time of the dinosaurs. These trees can still be seen growing today and made excellent food sources for plant-eating dinosaurs.
Gingkoes are large trees – growing up to thirty feet (9.14 meters) tall. They also grow quite quickly. This is another reason why they were a great food source for these dinosaurs.
These trees had large swathes of leaves. After eating about ¼ of a tree, even a large dinosaur would likely have gotten full.
Of course, because Gingkoes grew so tall, they were only available for the taller dinosaurs. Most smaller dinosaurs stuck to ferns and grasses. However, for those on the taller side, a buffet awaited.
Fruit, like flowers, was a special spring treat for many plant-eating dinosaurs. The fruit was juicy, easy to eat, and required minimal effort to acquire during the growing season.
In addition, the dinosaurs likely consumed most of the seeds inside fruits. Unless the dinosaur was quite small, the fruit would have been eaten whole.
Some smaller dinosaurs may have scavenged for specific seeds in various flowers or along the ground. This would have provided extra healthy fats for the dinosaurs – assisting in keeping them full of energy and healthier.
The base diet for plant-eating dinosaurs was greenery. However, some believe that these dinosaurs ate more than just plants.
This isn’t true of every plant-eating dinosaur, but there’s evidence that certain dinos enjoyed aquatic animals such as fish in addition to their base plant diet.
Certain herbivores have been found with various animal skeletons in their stomachs and intestines, indicating that they ate more than just plants. No one knows whether this occurred because of an emergency or as part of their normal diet. However, it's more likely that it was a part of their normal diet.
Scientists think this because animal skeletons found in plant-eating dinosaurs are all primarily the same – aquatic animals. Apparently, fish was quite easy for the herbivore to catch and eat. This is especially true for those dinosaurs that spent adequate time swimming in the water.
A great article discussing what aquatic animals plant-eating dinosaurs may have eaten can be found here.
Apart from a few dinosaurs here and there, there isn’t a lot of evidence that plant-eating dinosaurs ate more than just plants. Their stomach acid likely wouldn’t break down large amounts of animal products.
In addition, these dinosaurs were often prey for other dinosaurs. The effect that animal products would have on their bodies would likely give them less energy to defend themselves rather than more.
Another possible source of nutrients for plant-eating dinosaurs is insects. While the dinosaurs probably didn’t intentionally eat a lot of insects, undoubtedly, they were often consumed with various plants.
Insects may have provided a substantial amount of nutrients for these dinosaurs. Many insects have been shown to be very high in nutritional value, and when a plant was infested with various insects, the plant-eating dinosaurs likely heavily benefited from this.
Some of the most common insects dinosaurs may have consumed with plants include the following:
A few plant-eating dinosaurs may have intentionally dug in the ground for insects. This is especially likely if the dinosaur had claws. This type of dinosaur may have intentionally eaten insects such as ants and termites.
Most of our evidence for what plant-eating dinosaurs ate comes from fossils. Experts look for plant fossils that are found nearby dinosaur bones. In addition, they look for leftover partially digested meals and fossilized feces.
That sounds disgusting, but it's a great way to find what these dinosaurs were eating.
Another thing that experts look for when deciding what plant-eating dinos ate is by looking at their fossilized teeth. Often, plant materials remain in between the teeth.
In addition, they can see indents and scratches within the teeth, indicating what plants the dinosaurs primarily ate during their lifetime.
Of course, just because dinosaurs were of the same species doesn’t mean they ate the exact same thing. As discussed, what the dinosaurs ate also depended on where they lived. For example, if you had a herd of herbivores that lived in North America, they would eat a different diet than the same type of dinosaur in Asia.
When thinking about plant-eating dinosaurs, the question arises – how did they eat? Did they chew their food? Did they swallow it whole? After all, most plant-eating dinosaurs were gigantic and probably took huge bites of food.
Scientists and archeologists have done a lot of research into this. In general, here’s how certain dinosaurs probably ate.
Plant-eating dinosaurs that had beaks probably ate similarly to how birds eat today. They would bite off the plant with their beak and swallow things whole. With a beak, it’s a lot more difficult to chew food, so these dinos probably adapted to grabbing a mouthful of plant and swallowing quickly – later washing it down with water.
Those with full sets of teeth likely ground their food into a fine mush before swallowing. This would enhance the dinosaurs' energy and nutritional content since the food would get fully broken down ahead of time, as we discussed.
One of the most frequent questions people ask about a dinosaur chewing is how they keep their food inside their mouths. Chances are, these dinosaurs had large cheeks where they could place the food as they continued to chew. Then the entire mouthful could be swallowed at once.
In addition, their large cheeks allowed them to keep food secure in their mouths during the chewing process.
Plant-eating dinosaurs had abundant food available in almost every place they lived. Of course, this varied through the year, but there was almost always something to be found.
Some of the most common foods that plant-eating dinosaurs ate include ferns, swamp plants, evergreen trees, and grasses.
These dinosaurs may have also consumed small aquatic animals, crustaceans, or insects with their meals. However, the majority of their diet would remain plant-based.
We can discover what dinosaurs are once by examining various fossils. While nothing is certain, the fossils give us a good idea of what dinosaurs ate.
