Liaoningosaurus - a semi-aquatic fish-eating ankylosaur?

[Patrx]

This is unexpected! I am already imagining neat possibilities for models and dioramas.

Armored dinosaur was a fish-eating turtle-mimic

[Flaffy]

First a real-life dragon, then a giant raptor, now a fish eating ankylosaur?!
All of these needs to become models and figures! (I'm lookin' at you CollectA and Safari)

[HD-man]

This is unexpected! I am already imagining neat possibilities for models and dioramas.

Armored dinosaur was a fish-eating turtle-mimic

Earth Archives put it best when it said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and we're all being cautiously skeptical here until future supporting studies are published."

[suspsy]

Curiouser and curiouser!

[stargatedalek]

A lot of people don't tend to think of ankylosaurs as aquatic but many of them lived in swamps and marshland, so it's not strange at all that some might develop piscivory, or for that matter if these remains really are juveniles that omnivory/piscivory might be lost in adults in favor of plants. It happened with sauropods, where some infants display possible adaptations for insectivory.

For that matter, Pinacosaurus has been suggested before to be an insectivore.

Also what do they mean "first suggestion of omnivory or carnivory in ornithischia", it's been long suggested that ceratopsians could have been omnivorous, and it's virtually accepted that heterodontosaurs were.

[Dilopho]

How amazing! I knew some Ceratopsians ate bones and meat for the stuff plants don't supply and Ankylosaurs ate grubs and bugs sometimes too but this is so cool and revolutionary!
Aquatic! Wowee!

[tyrantqueen]

I was reading in an old book that (non avian) dinosaurs never lived in the water or flew. How times have changed. I wonder if we'll find an ornithischian with gliding adaptations soon.

[danmalcolm]

First a real-life dragon, then a giant raptor, now a fish eating ankylosaur?!
All of these needs to become models and figures! (I'm lookin' at you CollectA and Safari)

real life dragon? giant raptor?

yi and dakotaraptor?

[Dilopho]

I wonder if we'll find an ornithischian with gliding adaptations soon.

That reminds me of this book with a "true or false" game in which you had to guess which dinosaurs were real species and which ones were made up:

Obviously these two are some of the made up ones (one is from the "Beast of 20,000 fathoms"!) but maybe soon we will find a dinosaur like this 

[Lanthanotus]

There's still the possibility that the investigated animal just took the opportunistic chance and fed on a stranded, dead fish or something like that. All animals depend on a mixture of nutrients for growth and thriving, juveniles more than grown adults (hence why many species change their diet through their development) and a lot of ("pure") herbivores are known to take the chance for a bit of extra protein, fat or minerals when the opportunity os given, hippos nibble on carcasses aswell as deer and the ammount of invertebrates consumed by a cow by mere grazing can only be guessed. That being said, a new, fish eating ankylosaur species would really be exciting and show how evolution finds a variety for any niche.

[Jose S.M.]

Even if it's an herbivorous semi aquatic  ankylosaur it would be new and exciting

[CityRaptor]

Well, that would be interesting if it turns out to be true.

[LophoLeeVT]

could it be that it was just a turtle?

[acro-man]

this thread has a little bit more pics for your reference
http://tieba.baidu.com/p/4751120989

[Flaffy]

If this ankylosaur turns out to be true and display such behaviours,
I shall nickname it... "Kappa"

[Dilopho]

could it be that it was just a turtle?

I might be wrong, but didn't it say in the article that it wasn't fused?
Turtles have big plate shells.

[stargatedalek]

There's still the possibility that the investigated animal just took the opportunistic chance and fed on a stranded, dead fish or something like that. All animals depend on a mixture of nutrients for growth and thriving, juveniles more than grown adults (hence why many species change their diet through their development) and a lot of ("pure") herbivores are known to take the chance for a bit of extra protein, fat or minerals when the opportunity os given, hippos nibble on carcasses aswell as deer and the ammount of invertebrates consumed by a cow by mere grazing can only be guessed. That being said, a new, fish eating ankylosaur species would really be exciting and show how evolution finds a variety for any niche.

That's definitely the probability for now. What we have here is some actual evidence of omnivory (albeit still not enough to confidently claim frequent omnivory) in an ankylosaur, probably not an aquatic or piscivorous species.

[LophoLeeVT]

heyyyy... i saw that liaoningosaurus pair pic  in a PNSO dinosaur book.....lol

[Stuckasaurus (Dino Dad Reviews)]

Maybe all those Nodosaurs we find in aquatic sediments didn't necessarily end up there completely by accident after all. Well, the ones that ended up in marine sediments probably got swept out unintentionally, but it may not have been an accident that they were in the water in the first place. Man, to think I used to consider Ankylosaurs boring!

[DinoLord]

From what I've seen the authors don't make a particularly strong case against alternate taphonomic explanations for the presence of the fish in the specimen. I wonder if isotope analysis would be useful here?