RESEARCHERS have uncovered the stomach of a 75 million-year-old tyrannosaur.
The well-preserved stomach shows that the predator ate a baby dinosaur for its last meal.
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A team of international scientists from Canada, Japan, and the US recorded the remarkable findings in the journal Science Advances.
In the study, they note that the tyrannosaur subject was a young Gorgosaurus libratus.
And inside its stomach, researchers found the hind legs of small bird-like dinosaurs.
This is insightful because while researchers are aware of an adult tyrannosaurs’ diet – they commonly fed on dinosaurian megaherbivores – the eating habits of juveniles remained unknown.
“Here, we describe a remarkable specimen of a juvenile Gorgosaurus libratus that preserves the articulated hindlimbs of two yearling caenagnathid dinosaurs inside its abdominal cavity,” the study reads.
“The prey were selectively dismembered and consumed in two separate feeding events,” it adds.
This finding provides direct evidence of a dietary shift in tyrannosaurids.
Specifically, it indicates that juvenile tyrannosaurs may have hunted smaller dinosaurs until they were old enough to feed on dinosaurian megaherbivores.
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“This is the first time that such well-preserved stomach contents have been found inside the skeleton of a large species of tyrannosaur,” Darla Zelenitsky, the co-author of the study, said.
“It’s well-known that tyrannosaurs changed a lot during growth, from slender forms to these robust, bone-crushing dinosaurs, and we know that this change was related to feeding behavior,” Zelenitsky added.
The dinosaur weighed around 700 pounds, which is only around 10% of the mass of an adult.
Researchers also believe that the dino died between the ages of five and seven.
According to the study, the fossil was first uncovered in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Canada in 2009.
“The rock within the ribcage was removed to expose what was hidden inside,” according to study coauthor François Therrien.
“Lo and behold, the complete hind legs of two baby dinosaurs, both under a year old, were present in its stomach,” Therrien added.
