gastrolith
Sign in to savethumb|Plesiosaur gastroliths from [[Tropic Shale]] A gastrolith, also called a stomach stone or gizzard stone, is a rock held inside a gastrointestinal tract. Gastroliths in some species are retained in the muscular gizzard and used to grind food in animals lacking suitable grinding teeth. In other species the rocks are ingested and pass through the digestive system and are frequently replaced. The grain size depends upon the size of the animal and the gastrolith's role in digestion. Other species use gastroliths as ballast. Particles ranging in size from sand to cobble have been documented. T
Article
14 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Occurrence
- Paleontology
- History of discovery
- Identification
- Geologic distribution
- Jurassic
- Cretaceous
- Sauropods
- ''Cedarosaurus weiskopfae''
- Migration
- See also
- Footnotes
- References
thumb|Plesiosaur gastroliths from [[Tropic Shale]] A gastrolith, also called a stomach stone or gizzard stone, is a rock held inside a gastrointestinal tract. Gastroliths in some species are retained in the muscular gizzard and used to grind food in animals lacking suitable grinding teeth. In other species the rocks are ingested and pass through the digestive system and are frequently replaced. The grain size depends upon the size of the animal and the gastrolith's role in digestion. Other species use gastroliths as ballast. Particles ranging in size from sand to cobble have been documented. The ingestion of gastroliths is known as lithophagy.
==Etymology== Gastrolith comes from the Ancient Greek γαστήρ (gastēr), meaning "stomach", and λίθος (lithos), meaning "stone".