The Cretaceous equivalent of zebra and antelopes-the victim species in every wildlife documentary about the dramas of the African savannah-were herbivorous dinosaurs called ornithopods.
But the family Thylacoleo belonged to stemmed from a completely different marsupial group, instead – a group that is otherwise totally herbivorous, called the Vombatiformes.
However, by the late Cretaceous period, flowering plants began to appear, forever changing the face of our planet and providing new food sources for various herbivorous dinosaurs.
Not only that, but they're also pretty weird for herbivorous dinosaurs, combining many of the traits we see in other groups of plant-eaters into one unique family.
Many communicate chemically, both through the air and via their roots—warning each other, for example, of the arrival of herbivorous insects in order to co-ordinate their responses to these pests.
See, there are some difficulties involved in switching from a carnivorous to an herbivorous diet that Atopodentatus or its ancestors would've had to overcome during its evolution.
And the specific adaptations of the therizinosaurs – like long necks and claws – probably also helped them avoid competition with other herbivorous dinosaurs, like hadrosaurs and ceratopsians.