Fossilized Sauropod Gut Content Reveals Non-Chewing Vegetarian Diet

A fossilized gut content of a 94-101 million-year-old sauropod dinosaur revealed that these herbivores primarily relied on gut microbes for digestion, consumed a variety of plants including conifers, seed ferns, and flowering plants, and engaged in minimal oral processing, supporting the idea of bulk feeding. This discovery provides rare direct evidence of sauropod diet and suggests they were indiscriminate feeders that adapted to eating flowering plants shortly after their appearance.