Sauropod dinosaur’s last meal reveals that it didn’t bother to chew
A sauropod dinosaur fossil has been found with preserved stomach contents for the first time, providing insights into what they ate and how
By James Woodford
9 June 2025
An artist’s impression of Diamantinasaurus matildae, a sauropod dinosaur that lived about 94 million years ago
Travis Tischler
The fossilised gut contents of a sauropod dinosaur have been studied for the first time, revealing that the largest land animals that have ever lived were herbivores that barely chewed their food.
A fossil nicknamed Judy, from the species Diamantinasaurus matildae, was excavated near Winton in Queensland, Australia, in May 2017.
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Judy’s remains had been disturbed by scavengers shortly after death, sometime between 94 million and 101 million years ago, but large parts of the dinosaur’s body were intact, including mineralised sections of its skin. Most remarkably, its gut contents were preserved, containing an array of vegetation.
Until now, it was assumed from the skulls and jaws of sauropods that they were vegetarians, but palaeontologists had no direct evidence of what was in their diet.
“It’s hard not to view Judy with a sense of awe that you maybe don’t get with other sauropods,” says Stephen Poropat of Curtin University in Perth, Australia, part of the team that excavated and analysed the fossil.
