Plant eaters :Herbivores
Herbivores are primary consumers, which means that they eat plants which produce the food sources. It is estimated that two thirds of dinosaurs were plant eaters. One difficulty during the Mesozoic era is that they food sources, or plants that were available changed a lot. Many dinosaur dynasties gained and lost supremacy because of availability of their primary food source. When one type of plant was abundant, those who ate it gained a foot hold over other herbivores, when it became scare they starved. With the rise and fall of the plant abundance many new adaptations were used to gain supremacy.
There are many kinds of herbivores, some animals graze (leaves), while others grind tough coarse material (nuts, seeds).
In the beginning of the Mesozoic era, conivers (redwoods, pines, cycads, or horse-tails) were abondant. many of the dinosaurs had adapted their stomichs and systems to obsorb this low nutrient food. Later in the cretaceous period flowering plants (sycamores, magnolias, laurels) thrived, this was a rich nutrient food sorce that caused the greatest explosion of the herbivore population.
Because of being preyed upon by carnivores, many herbivores had to form adaptations to protect themselves from preditors. Like modern animals dinosaurs herded, or grew defencive adaptations (like kentosaurus spiked tail and hard spinal ridges) to defend themselves. Some grew so big that preditors could not challenge them like the Brachiosaurus.
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