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Fossil 'hell chicken' dinosaur had a fruit-eating beak, study says
Reuters reports that fossils of Infernogallus jamesi, a turkey-sized toothless dinosaur from about 66 million years ago, show jaw and beak traits suited to mashing fruit, according to Nature Communications.
Wire reporting: (Reuters, via CNA)
Fossils of a turkey-sized, toothless dinosaur named Infernogallus jamesi show beak and jaw traits suited to mashing soft food such as fruit, according to a Reuters report on a study in Nature Communications.
The animal lived about 66 million years ago in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and North Dakota, a landscape it shared with Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops and Ankylosaurus, Reuters said.
Researchers led by Greg Funston of Stony Brook University described three features they tied to fruit eating: jaw muscles for back-and-forth chewing, a joint that let the jaw slide forward, and ridges and grooves on the beak, the report said.
The fossils include a nearly complete skeleton plus isolated jaw and palate bones; feathers were not preserved, but the authors infer them from relatives, Reuters said. Seed-dispersal by these dinosaurs remains unproven, the researchers told Reuters.
