Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Injuries found on the skull of a type of Tyrannosaur known as a Daspletosaurus are consistent with an attack by another member of the genus, and evidence that the creature had been bitten after death indicate that the T. rex cousin may have been cannibalistic.
Dr. David Hone from Queen Mary, University of London, lead author of a study detailing the analysis of the Daspletosaurus specimen in question, reports that the creature suffered multiple injuries in battles with another Daspletosaurus during its life, and that it had been bitten after death by another tyrannosaur following its demise.
It’s a hard knock life for dinos
Daspletosaurus, a large carnivore that was slightly smaller than a Tyrannosaurus and lived in Canada, was both an active predator and scavenger, the researchers explained in their study, which was published this week in the journal PeerJ. This particular dino was comparable in age to an older human teenager, was nearly six meters long, and weighed 500 kilograms.
In studying the specimen, Dr. Hone and his colleagues found multiple injuries on its skull that would have occurred during its life, including several apparent bites that left marks close to the shape of tyrannosaur teeth. One bite to the back of its head stood out in particular, as it caused part of the skull to be broken off and left a circular tooth-shaped puncture in the bone.
“This animal clearly had a tough life suffering numerous injuries across the head including some that must have been quite nasty. The most likely candidate to have done this was another member of the same species, suggesting some serious fights between these animals during their lives,” the dinosaur expert explained in a statement Thursday.
Creature sustained injuries both before and after its death
Since the alternations to the surface of the creature’s bones are indicative of the healing process, the researchers said that it is likely that the wounds were not fatal. Likewise, there is no evidence to suggest that the Daspletosaurus was killed by another tyrannosaur, but the damage done to the jaw bones and the preservation of the skull appear to indicate that another tyrannosaur (perhaps a member of the same species) bit into and ate part of the animal once it started decaying.
While battles between large carnivorous dinosaurs are well known, and there is prior evidence of cannibalism in some species of these creatures (including tyrannosaurs), Dr. Hone and co-author Darren Tanke of the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta stated that they have found what seems to be a unique record of both pre- and post-mortem injuries in a single individual.
“Although we did already have evidence for combat in tyrannosaurs and even cannibalism, you never want to try to extrapolate from too little information – though that can be forced on you in paleontology – so any extra data or support for an idea is really important,” Dr. Hone explained to redOrbit via email on Friday morning.
Dinosaur research done crowdfunding style
Another noteworthy aspect to the research was the fact that it was crowdfunded thanks to the contributions of visitors to the website Experiment.com. The authors acknowledge that multiple donors contributed financially to the project, allowing the research to take place and the paper to be written and published. In return, they have made their paper fully open to the public.
Dr. Hone told redOrbit that he first became involved in the work after being invited by Tanke, who had helped excavate and prepare the specimen. Tanke had already “noted the bites and had a decent idea of the likely way this had come about,” and asked Dr. Hone to collaborate on the paper due to his “strong interest in bites and feeding traces.”
“I do a lot of outreach work, and had seen crowdfunding start to be used for science, I thought I would try it. I do like to try and get people involved in the process and while obviously I did need the support to carry out the work, I provided reports on the progress and spoke to the backers about the project to try and make the whole process more involved.”
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