The Teeth (& Beak?) of Camarasaurus

[ZoPteryx]

A relatively new paper that just became open access:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12542-016-0332-6

The authors' conclusions seem to make a lot of sense, but I wonder which is more likely, a beak or some sort of reinforced gums?

[CrypticPrism]

Yay, sauropod beaks! And on my favorite sauropod!

[Sim]

After reading this Dinogoss blog post on how beaks and teeth don't seem to occur in the same part of the mouth (http://dinogoss.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/youre-doing-it-wrong-birds-with-teeth.html), I'm not sure about calling this structure in sauropods a beak.  Perhaps "keratinous sheath" would be a better term to describe it.  Nigersaurus has been suggested to have a keratinous sheath on the front ends of its jaws since at least 2007.  I wonder if the structure being suggested in this paper about Camarasaurus would be the same that has been suggested for Nigersaurus?

[Neosodon]

The article called it a beak like structure. I've noticed this this structure in a lot of dinosaurs especially on ceratopsians which seem to have the closest thing to a beak. But it appears that scientists have not made an official name for it yet. So call it what you like it doesn't really make a difference.

[CrypticPrism]

How about shearers?

[Sim]

The article called it a beak like structure. I've noticed this this structure in a lot of dinosaurs especially on ceratopsians which seem to have the closest thing to a beak. But it appears that scientists have not made an official name for it yet. So call it what you like it doesn't really make a difference.

Ceratopsians do have beaks.  Additionally, as in other beaked animals, ceratopsians don't have teeth in the same area of the mouth as the beak.

[GasmaskMax]

So sauropods probably had lips and maybe beaky pointy do dads...COOL!

[Dinophile]

Oh my, I feel particularly dense....I can't figure out what this would look like ....would it present itself as a hadrosaur like a hadrosaur's mouth.  Does anyone have an illustration I can reference?

[Newt]

Interesting! Your link is still paywalled; do you have a link to the open access version?

[ZoPteryx]

Interesting! Your link is still paywalled; do you have a link to the open access version?

Here you go: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310765938_The_dentition_of_a_well-preserved_specimen_of_Camarasaurus_sp_implications_for_function_tooth_replacement_soft_part_reconstruction_and_food_intake

Oh my, I feel particularly dense....I can't figure out what this would look like ....would it present itself as a hadrosaur like a hadrosaur's mouth.  Does anyone have an illustration I can reference?

Maybe a bit like this?  I honestly think it's anyone's guess at this point, but it probably wouldn't have resembled a regular bird beak.

[Newt]

Thanks!

[Dinophile]

Thanks for the illustration.... well it thoroughly makes sense for some animal that would have  browsed tons of of plant material- most plants are well protected with bark, thorns,
and other structures. Could you imagine what this creatures tongue would look like?

[ITdactyl]

Somehow I missed this 2017 discussion point.

'Necroposting because this bit is making the rounds now:
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/10/giant-sauropod-dinosaurs-may-have-sported-turtlelike-beaks

And yet in the 2 years that passed, I have not seen a lot of sauropod reconstructions with toothy "beaks".  Even the art used in the article uses the conservative lizard-lipped reconstruction.  If true, I wonder how this would look like - especially on the horse-faced diplodocids.