Wear pattern, dental function, and jaw mechanism in the Late Cretaceous ankylosaur Hungarosaurus

Abstract

Feeding in thyreophoran dinosaurs is poorly understood. Although the group existed for over 130 million years, only the Early Jurassic basal thyreophoran Scelidosaurus harrisonii and the Late Cretaceous ankylosaurid Euoplocephalus tutus have been studied from this perspective in detail. In contrast to the earlier, conservative hypothesis of a simple "orthal pulping" feeding mode with no or limited tooth-tooth contact, recent studies have demonstrated precise dental occlusion with differing jaw mechanisms in these two species. Here, we describe the first detailed study of feeding related characters in a nodosaurid ankylosaur, Hungarosaurus tormai, from the Late Cretaceous of Hungary. Dental wear patterns comprising small, apical, and low-angled facets on the maxillary and steep, extended, and bowl-like facets on the dentary teeth reveal sophisticated tooth-tooth contact in this basal nodosaurid. The presence of two different scratch generations (vertical and low-angled) on the dentary teeth unambiguously demonstrate a multiphasic powerstroke, which is further supported by the morphology of the quadrate-articular and mandibular symphyseal joints and by the architecture of the reconstructed jaw adductors. Chewing started with an initial slicing phase associated with orthal movement that was followed by a retractive powerstroke with significant occlusal contact. Because of the curved tooth rows, these movements were probably facilitated by some mediolateral translation and/or axial rotation of the mandibles to produce precise shearing along the whole tooth row. These results demonstrate that complex jaw mechanisms and dental occlusion were more widespread among thyreophorans than thought previously and that palinal movement was present in at least two ankylosaurian lineages.

Keywords: Hungarosaurus; Late Cretaceous; ankylosaur; dental occlusion; palinal movement.