Definition of gastrolith in English:
gastrolith
nounˈɡastrə(ʊ)lɪθˈɡastrəˌliTH
1Zoology
A small stone swallowed by a bird, reptile, or fish to aid digestion in the gizzard.
Example sentencesExamples
- The diet of the edentulous forms is unclear, but a recent discovery of gastroliths in an undescribed Chinese ornithomimosaur may indicate a herbivorous/granivorous diet for at least this species.
- Such stomach stones or gastroliths have been reported from the gut regions or found nearby of prosauropods, sauropods and ornithopods.
- However, the Seismosaurus fossil found with the most gastroliths held only 15 kg of stones, the largest no bigger than a grapefruit.
- One of the avian characteristics of the emus is that they also eat small stones (called gastroliths or gizzard stones).
- The presence of gastroliths (gizzard stones) in the rib cages of some specimens shows that this view is correct.
2Medicine
A hard concretion in the stomach.