A Dinosaur's Last Meal

A correspondent, who is currently in the area, sent me the link to THIS ARTICLE which concerns the work done on an Upper Cretaceous sauropod (Diamantinasaurus matildae) found near the small town of Winton in the middle of Queensland, Australia.

The dinosaur, called Judy for reasons which need not detain us, is so well preserved that her stomach contents are preserved. This is the first time that we have direct evidence that sauropods were vegetarian. There is lots of indirect evidence that they must have been so but now we can see what they ate.

Also she is the first dinosaur fossil with skin preserved that has been found in Australia.

Small portion of Judy's skin, showing approximately hexagonal scales covered in tiny lumps (termed papillae). Scale bar in centimetres. (Poropat et al., Current Biology, 2025)

Judy's stomach contents confirm what had been thought - sauropods ate from trees high off the ground. But she was not fully grown and so, also ate low growing plants - angiosperms.

The work done on Judy is also discussed in THIS ARTICLE. The source paper for both is THIS ACADEMIC PAPER. The latter covers everything in painstaking detail. I particularly liked "The fossilised bones were exposed using standard digging equipment (e.g., hammers, chisels, screwdrivers, dental probes, paintbrushes)"