'Appetite for Drumsticks': First Prey Found in a Tyrannosaur Stomach

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Prey has been discovered inside the stomach of a tyrannosaur skeleton for the first time, scientists said Friday, revealing that the mighty dinosaurs had an "appetite for drumsticks" when they were young.

The skeleton of the Gorgosaurus, a member of the tyrannosaurid family that also includes the T-Rex, sheds light on how these dinosaurs grew from fairly slender juveniles into gigantic, bone-crushing, apex-predator adults, they added.

The Gorgosaurus-which means "dreadful lizard"-was around six years old when it died more than 75 million years ago, according to a new study in the journal Science Advances.

The fossil was discovered in 2009 at the Dinosaur Provincial Park, east of the Canadian city of Calgary. But when they got the skeleton back to the lab, the scientists noticed something strange.

The study's lead author, Francois Therrien of the Royal Tyrrell Museum, told AFP they were amazed to "discover the remains of the last meal of this young tyrannosaur still preserved in place".

What was most surprising, he added, was that the small leg bones sticking out of the tyrannosaur's ribcage belonged to two young, bird-like dinosaurs called Citipes.

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