Assertion: plesiosaur | /r/CapableOf | use their gastroliths
Facets:
value: on the grounds
type: LOCATION
value: to help break down their food
type: PURPOSE
value: for ballast
type: PURPOSE
value: in a gizzard-like organ
type: LOCATION
value: to adjust buoyancy
type: PURPOSE
value: to grind up their invertebrate prey
type: PURPOSE
Source sentences:
text: Barnum Brown hypothesized that plesiosaurs used their gastroliths in a gizzard-like organ to grind up their invertebrate prey since they had no grinding or crushing teeth to do that job for them.
text: Taylor argued that plesiosaurs used their gastroliths to adjust buoyancy or to help stay level and balanced while swimming.
text: These were likely inflicted by contact with other gastroliths during the churning of the animal's stomach, and constituted physical evidence that plesiosaurs used their gastroliths to help break down their food during digestion.
text: Cicimurri and Everhart disputed the hypothesis that plesiosaurs used their gastroliths for ballast on the grounds that swallowing and vomiting such stones would be relatively difficult for the long-necked forms and their feeding grounds may have been hundreds of miles from sources of stones.