#gastrolith

[willingpreyorbust]

I like the idea of a gastrolith prey for preds with inefficient digestion. Just a person who sits in your tummy and manually breaks down food for you. And since your stomach sucks at its job, they can stay in there for extended periods, even choosing to stay full-time…

… yes, this IS based on that one fic by @livesinastomach. So what, it’s a great story!

[whirligig-girl]

Mellanoid Slimes often use gastroliths--that is, rocks--to aid in digestion. Eaurp Guz really needed to have explained this to Tendi before their 'authentic mellanoid meal' began.

Tendi's fine by the way, it's the 24th century, they can replicate new teeth directly into your mouth, or something like that.

[adventurealldays]

A gastrolith found in the Morrison Formation near Denver. A gastrolith is a rock a dinosaur would swallow to help with digestion

[animalworld]

INDIAN GHARIAL Gavialis gangeticus ©Laura Quick

Once widespread in India and Central Asia, now critically endangered, they still exist in fragmented sections in Northern India and Nepal. Males grow to 16-21 feet long and can weigh up to 550 pounds. Their long snout with nostrils, ear openings,and eyes are positioned high on their skull which allows them to lay  at the water line with all the important bits above water.

Some Fun Facts

Live for 50-60 years in the wild

Snout might not look powerful but it is filled with 110 razor-sharp interlocking teeth

Fishing specialists - catch fish sideways, flicking them with their jaws turning them so they can swallow the fish headfirst.

use their tails in a side-to-side motion to propel themselves through the water.

Spend most of their time in water, their leg strength on land is not great, they move forward on land using all four limbs, similar to turtles

Lack a Jacobson’s organ, which is present in mos reptiles

Male adults have a weirdish looking knob called a “ghara” (Hindi for round earthen pot) on the end of their snout. The ghara, vibrates which amplifies a humming/buzzing sound which can be heard up to a mile away, and is used to attract females.

Crocodilians are ‘gastroliths’ - they swallow stones which embed in their stomach folds and aid in digestion, they may also play a part in gharial buoyancy.

You might also enjoy:

American Crocodile

Jacaré and Piranha Lunch

Reptile Eyes

[amnhnyc]

What's a gastrolith—and how does it relate to paleontologist R.T. Bird? Find out in our Dino Detectives Facebook Group! You'll also get access to historic Museum photos, current dinosaur research, and more. We update the community every week!  >> https://bit.ly/2B8MKVN

[ornithopsis]

Are gastroliths a myth in general or just for sauropods?

Just for sauropods. Some theropods, including many modern birds, have a gastric mill containing many gastroliths for grinding food.

Some sauropods have been found with stomach stones, which would technically be called gastroliths, but it is considered unlikely that they were used for grinding food, and may have even just been swallowed by accident.

[ornithopsis]

The gastrolith and chewing articles.

Well, Wikipedia is only up-to-date if people who are aware of the newest reliable science bother to edit it, and this seems to be a case where that hasn’t happened. In particular, the Wikipedia page on chewing claims that hadrosaurs outcompeted sauropods, which is an outdated idea based on a historical over-emphasis on North America (the only continent where hadrosaurs were more successful than sauropods).

The case against a gastric mill in sauropods seems fairly compelling to me, and I haven’t seen any convincing refutations of it.

[uselesswormeggs13]

gastrolith pride flag!!!!!!!!!!! a pride flag for characters who are gastrolith coded or for character who swallow rocks to aid with digestion :) ^_^ <3 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!