Fossilized Excrement Makes No Bones About T. Rex’s Meals

What is described as the largest fossilized excrement from a flesh-eating dinosaur has given scientists new evidence about where, how and what the ferocious Tyrannosaurus rex ate about 65 million years ago. Until now, most scientists thought the mighty predator had torn apart its prey and swallowed it in big chunks, but the discovery in Canada of a “coprolite” containing very small bone fragments has shown that the mighty creature chewed and crushed whatever it consumed.

The coprolite, 17 inches long and 6 inches across, was found in southwest Saskatchewan, 20 miles from the town of Eastend, the researchers report in today’s Nature. It is twice as big as any previous carnivore coprolite ever found. The coprolite contains many tiny bone fragments from a smaller dinosaur about the size of a large cow, proving the T. rex crushed, consumed and incompletely digested large quantities of bone.

Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II