How far might plant-eating dinosaurs have moved seeds?

Abstract

Fossilized gut contents suggest that seeds consumed by dinosaurs may have remained intact in their stomachs, and since seed dispersal distance increases with body-mass in extant vertebrates, dinosaurs may have moved seeds long distances. I simulated seed dispersal by dinosaurs across body-masses from 1 × 10 1 to 8 × 10 4 kg using allometric random walk models, informed by relationships between (i) body-mass and movement speed, and (ii) body-mass and seed retention time. Seed dispersal distances showed a hump-shaped relationship with body-mass, reflecting the allometric relationship between maximum movement speed and body-mass. Across a range of assumptions and parameterizations, the simulations suggest that plant-eating dinosaurs could have dispersed seeds long distances.