GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -For a long time, the idea that many dinosaurs and other extinct animals swallowed rocks, either to help grind up their food or to help control their buoyancy, has been widely accepted. Smooth rocks found in dinosaur-bearing formations have been assumed to be “used” gastroliths vomited up by dinosaurs.

Detailed explanation-2: -They just pulled up their food and gulped it down. The mechanical break-up may have been carried out by a ‘gastric mill’. Similar to today’s birds, dinosaurs may have swallowed stones with which they ground the food to a paste with their muscular stomach. However, there are no clear indications of this.

Detailed explanation-3: -A gastrolith, also called a stomach stone or gizzard stone, is a rock held inside a gastrointestinal tract. Gastroliths in some species are retained in the muscular gizzard and used to grind food in animals lacking suitable grinding teeth.

Detailed explanation-4: -The fossil record tells us many herbivorous dinosaurs also ate rocks-paleontologists know when they find the telltale collection of small stones still trapped inside a fossilized ribcage.

Detailed explanation-5: -Many animals like crocodiles and seals eat rocks to help with digestion-they’re called gastroliths. The rocks that the dinosaurs carried are recognizable to geologists because they are smooth, different from their surroundings, and near dinosaur remains.