Tag Archive for 'Frugivory'

Infernogallus jamesi, a small oviraptorosaur that roamed our planet near the end of the Cretaceous period, may have fed on fleshy fruit. Image credit: Funston et al., 10.1038/s41467-026-78343-w.

Small, Chicken-Like Dinosaur May Have Had a Jaw Built for Fruit

Oct 13, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Fossils from Montana show a small oviraptorosaur with a jaw that slid front to back, a feature shared with fruit-eating parrots. Infernogallus jamesi,...

Diversity of extinct mammals that inhabited the surroundings of Lake Tagua Tagua, Chile. Image credit: Mauricio Álvarez.

South American Mastodons Regularly Consumed Fruits, Study Suggests

Jun 13, 2025 by News Staff

Most megafaunal herbivores in the Americas went extinct around 10,000 years ago, presumably disrupting the long-distance seed dispersal of large, fleshy-fruited...

Skull of Longipteryx chaoyangensis. Image credit: Xiaoli Wang.

Cretaceous-Period Toothed Bird Ate Gymnosperm Fruits, Not Fish

Sep 10, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found the fossilized seeds of gymnosperm trees — relatives of today’s conifers and ginkgos — in stomachs of two specimens...

Jeholornis pooping out seeds from fruit, helping fruit-bearing plants take over the world. Image credit: Zhixin Han / Yifan Wang.

Early Cretaceous Birds Ate Whole Fruits

Aug 17, 2022 by News Staff

Members of Jeholornis, a genus of early birds that lived in what is now China some 120 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch), are the earliest-known...