Scientists Discover ‘Hell Chicken’, a Dinosaur That Ate Fruits Instead of Meat

A dinosaur nicknamed ‘Hell Chicken’ has revealed new information about prehistoric diets. Scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur called Infernogallus jamesi. This dinosaur lived approximately 66 million years ago and appears to have been specialised to eat fruit.

This discovery was made by an international group of palaeontologists from Stony Brook University, Royal Ontario Museum and North Dakota Geological Survey. The study published in Nature Communications reveals this is the first dinosaur to be specialised to eat fruit.

Despite its scary name this was a relatively small bird-like dinosaur, similar in size to a turkey and weighing around 12kg. This dinosaur belonged to a group of feathered, toothless dinosaurs called caenagnathids. It would have lived alongside famous dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops.

The researchers decided to name it ‘Hell Chicken’ due to the fossils being discovered within the Hell Creek Formation in the United States. Using CT scans on the skull they discovered that it had unusual jaw structures and chewing muscles. This meant that it could move its beak from side to side. This feature helped it crush soft fruits and separate the pulp from the seeds, similar to some fruit eating parrots.

This discovery shows us new information about how varied the diets of dinosaurs were. The researchers suggest that fruit eating dinosaurs such as Infernogallus could have helped spread seeds and therefore impacted the growth of flowering plants. But we are not exactly sure what role they played in seed dispersal in prehistoric times.

This discovery shows us once again how diverse dinosaur life was. Despite the famous predators in this era some dinosaurs may have survived due to them being fruit eaters.