Some dinosaurs may have munched on seaweed, scientists say

Dinosaurs are often imagined stomping through ancient forests and plains looking for their next meal.

But it turns out that some may have preferred a rather different dining spot - the beach.

Scientists say they have found evidence that some living near the coast may have eaten food that came from the sea.

The discovery comes from fossils more than 90 million years old, and suggests seaweed may have been on the menu for some dinos.

The research was carried out by a team of scientists led by the University of Arkansas in the US.

They studied fossils from dinosaurs and other animals, including fish and crocodiles, that lived around 100 million years ago in an area that is now North America.

Researchers decided to take a closer look at the teeth and bones of the animals in order to look for clues as to what they had been eating.

Some of the fossils came from places that were once close to the water, while others were found further inland.

The team found that some of the dinos and their prey that lived near the coast had been eating food that came from the sea.

The researchers think this is because seaweed and other sea plants may have been washed onto beaches during storms.

Animals living nearby could then have eaten them, meaning that food from the ocean then became part of the diets of some animals living on land away from the water.

In fact, the team think seaweed was likely an important part of the diet of many of the plant-eating dinosaurs they studied.

Experts say their findings show that the worlds of land and sea were connected in surprising ways.

Clayton Forster, who led the research, explained: "Our study emphasizes the connections between terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

"They are deeply intertwined and have been for hundreds of millions of years."