Fossil Discovery Confirms Long-Necked Dinosaurs Were Herbivores

Popular culture has long portrayed long-necked dinosaurs as plant eaters—whether it’s the gentle Brachiosaurus in “Jurassic Park” or Littlefoot from the “Land Before Time” films. Despite this widespread belief, definitive fossil evidence confirming their herbivorous diet has remained elusive.

There have been indirect clues pointing to a diet dominated by vegetation.

Sauropod fossils are abundant, reflecting their 130-million-year presence on Earth, and herbivores generally outnumber carnivores in ecosystems. Their small, peg-shaped teeth and massive, slow-moving bodies suggested they were unlikely predators. As one paleontologist noted, plants were essentially their only viable food source.

A recent study published in the journal Current Biology offers perhaps the first direct proof: fossilized plant remains discovered within the abdominal cavity of a sauropod. This finding represents a breakthrough, providing tangible evidence of their diet rather than relying on indirect assumptions.

The research team, including experts from the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum and Curtin University, unearthed the fossil during a 2017 excavation in Queensland’s Winton Formation. They were studying a 36-foot-long juvenile Diamantinasaurus matildae, nicknamed Judy, when they noticed an unusual layer of fossilized plant material near the dinosaur’s pelvic region.

Recognizing the rarity of fossilized gut contents—known as cololites—the scientists approached the discovery cautiously. Such remnants are uncommon, especially among herbivorous dinosaurs, whose plant-based diets rarely fossilize as well as the bones of carnivores.