The study published in Royal Society Open Science even dated Borealopelta's last supper, death and burial to late spring or early summer.

This provides a 'glimpse of how the animal actually carried out its daily activities, where it lived, and what its preferred food was'. It contained a distinctive mass of vegetation about the size of a football.ĭigested foods are scarce in the fossil record as they usually disintegrate over time, which is what made this discovery so unique.īasinger said when people see the 'stunning fossil' and are told researchers can see exactly what its last meals was - it brings the best back to life. The orange area in this drawing of the beast shows the position and extent of abdominal mass found in its remains 'This stomach recovered from the mummified nodosaur by the museum team is by far the best-preserved dinosaur stomach ever found to date,' he said. Resembling a giant pineapple, the creature belonged to a group of tank-like monsters called the nodosaurs.Ĭo-author Professor Jim Basinger, of the University of Saskatchewan, said the findings of an actual preserved stomach is 'extraordinarily rare'. The adornments helped attract mates and ward off rivals, researchers said. This would have been another regular hazard in the humid, sub-tropical climate - along with dodging carnivorous cousins.īorealopelta's strongly arched back was covered in thorny spikes - with two longer horns on its shoulders measuring about 20 inches. The study of its fossilised guts found charcoal on some of food fragments, which the team say also shows Borealopelta dined in an area that had been ravaged by a lightning-triggered wildfire. This image shows the remains of the species gut The last meal of the bone plated Borealopelta markmitchell were discovered fossilised inside its guts by scientists from the University of Saskatchewan.

Leaf on the wind impaled meme