WASHINGTON — Scientists have identified what may be the first known fruit-eating dinosaur: a turkey-sized, feathered creature nicknamed the "hell chicken" that munched on cherry-like fruits in the shadow of Tyrannosaurus rex some 67 million years ago. The newly described species, Infernogallus jamesi, had a mouth and jaw specially adapted for chewing soft foods, according to a study published on 10 October 2026 in the journal Nature Communications — evidence that at least some dinosaurs enjoyed what one paleontologist called "Cretaceous fruit salads."
Illustration: Infernogallus jamesi, a turkey-sized feathered dinosaur, eats cherry-like drupes in a Late Cretaceous forest. Researchers say it may be the first known dinosaur to specialise in fruit.
What Happened
Researchers led by Greg Funston, a paleontologist at Stony Brook University, describe Infernogallus jamesi from fossils that include a nearly complete skull and a partial skeleton, recovered from the Hell Creek Formation, a famous fossil boneyard that stretches across Montana, the Dakotas and Wyoming. The animal weighed an estimated 25 pounds and was about the size of a turkey, making it one of the smallest members of the caenagnathids — a group of beaked, two-legged, feathered dinosaurs.
The team created a digital reconstruction of the skull by CT scanning the fossils, and three key features pointed to a fruit-based diet: mouth muscles that enabled back-and-forth chewing, a special joint that allowed the jaw to slide forward, and ridges and grooves inside the beak that could help process soft materials like fruits. Today, this muscle organisation exists in mammals with complex chewing abilities, including humans, as well as in some fruit-eating birds like the vulturine parrot.
"It has been proposed before that some groups of dinosaurs ate fruits, but there was never evidence to back it up," study co-author Thomas Dudgeon, an evolutionary ecologist at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, told Reuters. "It's pretty rare for animals to become specialized for a diet of fruit, so when it happens, it comes with some remarkable adaptations," Dudgeon said in a statement from the museum. "The anatomy of Infernogallus is bizarre among dinosaurs, and we quickly realized that we were dealing with something special."
The name captures the animal's character. The genus name Infernogallus means "hell chicken," a nod to the creature's small size and to the Hell Creek Formation where its fossils were found. The species name jamesi honours the grandfather of one of the co-authors, who sparked that scientist's love of paleontology.
Outside experts welcomed the find. "This is a fantastic new dinosaur discovery," Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh who did not participate in the study, told Science magazine. "This new species finally reveals the face of a dinosaur fruit eater," he added. "We can now be sure that at least some dinosaurs were enjoying Cretaceous fruit salads."
Illustration: A digital reconstruction of the Infernogallus jamesi skull, built from CT scans of the fossil. The jaw joint and ridged beak point to a diet of soft fruit.
Background
Infernogallus jamesi lived in the same region and at the same time as the fearsome T. rex, around 67 million years ago, in the final chapter of the Late Cretaceous period. While the popular image of that world is dominated by giant carnivores and huge long-necked herbivores, the new study shows the menu on offer was far more varied. Flowering plants had been spreading for tens of millions of years — flowers first evolved around 130 million years ago — and by the Cretaceous they had become the most prominent land-based vegetation.
The fruits on the hell chicken's menu were probably drupes, which had soft flesh around a hard seed or pit, similar to today's cherries and peaches, Funston told Science. When Funston and his colleagues investigated the evolution of the hell chicken and drupes, they discovered that the dinosaur's lineage started to adapt to its specialised diet right as these fruits became larger and more abundant — a rare clear connection between dinosaur diversity and the evolution of flowering plants.
The Hell Creek Formation has yielded some of the most famous dinosaur fossils ever found, including many T. rex specimens. That a small, fruit-eating relative could hide in the same rocks for so long underlines how much of the Late Cretaceous ecosystem remains to be understood. Caenagnathids were already known as a group of beaked, feathered dinosaurs, but Infernogallus is among the smallest of them, and its skull is the best-preserved evidence yet of what these animals actually did with their unusual beaks.
Fruit eating, or frugivory, is a demanding specialism. Soft, energy-rich fruit is a valuable food, but exploiting it requires the right equipment: jaws that can mash pulp without crushing the pit, and a digestive system that can pass seeds unharmed. The three anatomical features identified in Infernogallus — the chewing muscles, the sliding jaw joint and the ridged beak — together form a toolkit that matches the job, and matches it in a way that has no close parallel among other known dinosaurs.
Illustration: The Hell Creek Formation river plain 67 million years ago, where small feathered dinosaurs foraged for fallen fruit in the shadow of a distant Tyrannosaurus rex.
Why It Matters
The discovery matters because it fills a gap that paleontologists have long suspected but could never prove. Dinosaurs dominated land ecosystems for more than 150 million years, yet until now no species had been shown to specialise in eating fruit, even though fruit-bearing flowering plants were spreading across the planet during the Cretaceous. The hell chicken provides the first anatomical evidence that dinosaurs joined the fruit-eating guild — and did so with the same kind of specialised chewing machinery seen in modern fruit-eating mammals and birds.
It also tightens the link between two great evolutionary stories. As flowering plants diversified and their fruits grew larger and more abundant, at least one dinosaur lineage adapted in step. That kind of coordinated change — plants offering a new food, animals evolving to eat it — is a textbook example of how ecosystems reshape each other, and it is rarely possible to pin it down in the fossil record with this level of anatomical detail.
There may be an ecological twist as well. Fruit-eating dinosaurs may have helped flowering plants spread by dispersing their seeds through their faeces, Funston and his colleagues suggest. The fossil record shows that during the Cretaceous, flowering plants became the dominant land vegetation, and animals that carried seeds across the landscape could have played a part in that takeover. Funston himself urges caution: "We know that these big-seeded fruits were proliferating and spreading, and it seems like caenagnathids could have fit this role — although we feel more evidence is needed before drawing that link confidently," he told Reuters.
For the public image of dinosaurs, the hell chicken is a useful corrective. The Late Cretaceous was not only a world of hunters and giants; it was also a world of small, feathered animals picking fruit in the undergrowth, living — and thriving — in the shadow of the largest predators that ever walked the Earth.
What Happens Next
The research team will now look for more evidence to test the fruit-eating hypothesis. Further fossils from the Hell Creek Formation could show whether other caenagnathids shared the hell chicken's chewing adaptations, or whether Infernogallus was a one-off specialist. Comparisons with the skulls of related species may reveal when the fruit-eating toolkit first appeared, and whether it evolved once or several times.
The seed-dispersal idea will be harder to prove, and the researchers are clear that more evidence is needed before that link can be drawn confidently. Clues could come from the distribution of fossil fruits and seeds in the same rocks, and from a closer look at how caenagnathid jaws handled the hard pits at the centre of drupes.
The study also gives museums and educators a new star: a small, feathered, fruit-loving dinosaur with a memorable name, found in one of the world's most famous fossil beds. As more of the Hell Creek Formation is explored, paleontologists expect further surprises from the small animals that shared the world with T. rex — animals whose diets, behaviours and ecological roles are only now coming into focus.
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FAQ
What is Infernogallus jamesi?
Infernogallus jamesi is a newly described species of small, feathered, beaked dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period, around 67 million years ago. It weighed about 25 pounds, was roughly the size of a turkey, and belonged to a group called the caenagnathids. Researchers say it may be the first known dinosaur to specialise in eating fruit.
Why is it called the "hell chicken"?
The genus name Infernogallus means "hell chicken." It refers to the animal's small, chicken-like size and to the Hell Creek Formation in Montana, the Dakotas and Wyoming, where its fossils — including a nearly complete skull — were found. The species name jamesi honours the grandfather of one of the study's co-authors.
How do scientists know it ate fruit?
The team CT-scanned the fossil skull and built a digital reconstruction. Three features pointed to a fruit diet: mouth muscles that enabled back-and-forth chewing, a special joint that let the jaw slide forward, and ridges and grooves inside the beak for processing soft foods. The same muscle organisation is found today in mammals with complex chewing and in fruit-eating birds such as the vulturine parrot.
What kind of fruit did it eat?
Probably drupes — fruits with soft flesh around a hard seed or pit, similar to modern cherries and peaches. The researchers found that the hell chicken's lineage began adapting to this diet just as such fruits were becoming larger and more abundant in the Late Cretaceous.
Did fruit-eating dinosaurs help spread flowering plants?
Possibly. The researchers suggest that by eating fruit and passing the seeds in their faeces, dinosaurs like Infernogallus may have helped flowering plants spread as they became the dominant land vegetation of the Cretaceous. Lead author Greg Funston cautions that more evidence is needed before that link can be drawn confidently.
Sources
- Smithsonian Magazine, Margherita Bassi, "This Ancient 'Hell Chicken' Might Be the First Known Fruit-Loving Dinosaur, Revealing a Whole New Cretaceous Lifestyle," 5 November 2026.
- Reuters, Will Dunham (quoted via Smithsonian Magazine), 5 November 2026.
- Funston et al., study published in Nature Communications, 10 October 2026.
- Royal Ontario Museum, statement by study co-author Thomas Dudgeon (via Smithsonian Magazine), November 2026.
- Science magazine, Taylor Mitchell Brown (quoted via Smithsonian Magazine), November 2026.
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