The dinosaur's last meal

A few years ago, an unusually well-preserved fossil of an armored dinosaur, a Boreal delta, was found in a Canadian mine.  

- These dinosaurs didn't even reach a meter above the ground, but they could be over five meters long and weighed over a ton. It looked like a smaller armored car, ”says Vivi Vajda, professor of geology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

The contents of the animal's stomach also proved to be preserved and have now been analyzed by Canadian paleontologists presenting their results in the Royal Society Open Science.

The researchers found that Borealopeltan's last meal consisted of 85 percent of leaves from ferns, but a little trace of conifers. There was also burnt wood in the stomach.

- This could indicate that this animal was wandering around an area that had recently burned and eaten by the ferns that so often appear in burnt landscapes, says David Greenwood, a biologist at Brandon University and who has analyzed the stomach contents.  

In addition, the researchers have also found twigs in the stomach. Analyzes of the twigs' annual rings show when the year the dinosaur ate its last meal.

- They found that it was during our late spring, as one today, says Vivi Vajda.