Dinosaurs ate a wide range of foods, but most were plant-eaters. Depending on the species, their diets included leaves, ferns, conifers, cycads, seeds, fruit, insects, eggs, fish, small animals, and sometimes other dinosaurs.

What they ate

  • Herbivores ate plants such as ferns, conifers, cycads, mosses, and later flowering plants.
  • Carnivores ate meat, including other dinosaurs, lizards, turtles, eggs, and early mammals.
  • Omnivores ate a mix of plants and animal food, including insects, fruit, seeds, eggs, and small vertebrates.

How we know

Scientists infer dinosaur diets from fossil teeth, stomach contents, tooth wear, coprolites, and the plant fossils found in the same rock layers.

Simple picture

Think of dinosaurs as ancient eaters with different menus: some were like cows, some like lions, and some like opportunistic scavengers.

Some plant details changed over time too: grasses were not yet around for most of the dinosaur era, so many dinosaurs ate other kinds of vegetation instead.