Infernogallus jamesi, nicknamed the “hell chicken,” lived in North America around 66 million years ago. The small toothless dinosaur is known from a notably complete skull and other fossils in the Hell Creek Formation. Researchers found muscle and beak arrangements that resemble those of modern fruit-eating parrots.
The scientific paper argues that the animal could move its lower jaw to process soft foods and that these features are evidence of specialized herbivory. This is an anatomical inference, not direct observation of fossil fruit in its stomach. The work changes the picture of what small theropods could eat.
The original open-access Nature Communications paper includes diagrams of the jaw and skull. It is a better rabbit hole than a sensational reconstruction alone.
Go to Source — https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78343-w