Infernogallus jamesi resided in what is now the United States throughout the current Cretaceous, 68 to 66 million years earlier.

The types comes from Caenagnathidae, a group of toothless, feathered oviraptorosaurs whose diet plans have actually long puzzled paleontologists.

“Caenagnathids were a primarily North American group of oviraptorosaurs differentiated by long, low edentulous mandibles that frequently bear intricate ridges and grooves on their occlusal surface areas; lengthen, gracile limbs; and extremely pneumatized skeletons,” stated Dr. Gregory Funston, a scientist at Stony Brook University, the Royal Ontario Museum and the University of California, Davis, and his associates.

“This mix of functions chooses versus their conservation in lots of Late Cretaceous depositional systems in the Western Interior Basin, leading to a fossil record controlled by fragmentary, separated bones.”

“Although partial skeletons are understood, none have actually yet allowed analysis of the mandibular adductor musculature, which would illuminate the functions of their uncommon mandibles.”

The holotype specimen of Infernogallus jamesi — an almost total, articulated skull with part of the skeleton– was gathered in 2011 from the Hell Creek Formation in Montana.

Extra product from Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota was likewise appointed to the types.

Bone areas revealed the animal was at least 6 years of ages and completely grown, regardless of weighing an approximated 12 kg (26 pounds).

Utilizing CT scans, the scientists rebuilded the jaw muscles and discovered that they pulled mainly front to back instead of up and down, which recommends a weak bite.

The jaw joint appears to have let the lower jaw slide forward and backwards by approximately about 15 mm.

The upper and lower jaws brought ridges and grooves that would have meshed as the jaw moved.

No stomach stones, which numerous plant-eating dinosaurs utilized to grind food, showed up in the specimen’s body cavity.

Together with the weak bite, this indicate a diet plan of soft food that still required a great deal of processing, instead of difficult, fibrous plants.

Amongst living animals, the closest match was the Pesquet’s parrot (Psittrichas fulgidusa bird types that consumes fruit by mashing the pulp and disposing of the seeds.

The authors propose that Infernogallus jamesi and other caenagnathid oviraptorosaurs might have consumed fruit in a comparable method.

Their evolutionary analyses recommend caenagnathids occurred approximately 100 million years ago or more, not long after fleshy fruits appeared.

The most specific members of the group emerged around the time fruits grew bigger and more different.

“Caenagnathids’ herbivorous diet plan most likely consisted in big part of fleshy angiosperm fruits, which increased in size and variety in performance with the radiation of oviraptorosaurs,” the paleontologists stated.

“Caenagnathids hence supply among the greatest prospects for angiosperm-based diet plan adjustments in dinosaurs, however their function in the Late Cretaceous expansion of fruit– which formed early Cenozoic plants– stays uncertain.”

Infernogallus jamesi is explained in a paper released this month in the journal Nature Communications

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G.F. Funston et alFruit-eating adjustments in a Late Cretaceous oviraptorosaur (Theropoda). Nat Communreleased online October 10, 2026; doi: 10.1038/ s41467-026-78343-w