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in bones of their own species, confirming that at least a few theropods made daily
specials out of their relatives.
Great story, but too bad it was wrong. In 2002, paleontologist Robert Gay
took a closer look at these
Coelophysis
specimens and found that the “juvenile
Coelophysis
” bones were misidentified. Instead, they belonged to
Hesperosuchus
,
a small crocodile-like animal that lived at the same time as
Coelophysis
. Another
study done by Sterling Nesbitt and others in 2006 confirmed that it was
Hes-
perosuchus
inthebellyofthebeast,notanother
Coelophysis
.Inyetanotherstudyin
2010, Gay pointed out that supposed “stomach contents” in one
Coelophysis
made
up a larger volume than its original stomach, so this was not an enterolite, either.
Still, the idea that
Coelophysis
looked to its kin for an occasional meal did not go
away, as another adult specimen was found with juvenile bones next to its mouth.
Interestingly, this deposit, because of its position and jumble of bones, was inter-
pretedasaregurgitalite.Ifso,didthis
Coelophysis
purgeitselfjustbeforedyingand
entombing, or did this digestive rejection reflect some sort of remorse? It probably
was not the latter, as hungry dinosaurs surely lacked any such taboos.
Fortunately, paleontologists did not have to fixate solely on
Coelophysis
for
examples of theropods with stomach contents, as many more were uncovered from
the 1990s on. For instance, in 2011, Jingmai O'Connor and two other paleonto-
logists reported a specimen of
Microraptor
—a small feathered theropod from the
EarlyCretaceousofChina—withbirdbonesbetweenitsribs.Thebones,consisting
ofaleftwingandbothfeet,wereundigested,withouttoothmarks,andthefeetwere
closertothefrontofthe
Microraptor
'sbodycavity.Allofthisimpliedthatthebird,
which was an adult, was snatched headfirst and eaten whole or in chunks. These
contents comprised a wonderful find, as they confirmed that
Microraptor
—which
had feathers on all four limbs—was likely a tree-dwelling dinosaur, hunting fully
grownbirdsfarabovetheground.However,thisdidnotmean
Microraptor
ateonly
birds, as another specimen also had a mammal bone in it.