The bone displays distinctive teeth marks that the paleontologists say hint that, at a few point, it was gnawed at by another tyrannosaur.
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A tyrannosaur bone uncovered in Wyoming’s Lance Formation, broken at both ends, was covered in “very deep groves”, paleontologist Matthew McLain of Loma Linda University said in a release. In 2010, other tyrannosaur bones were found with marks that could only have been made by another large, carnivorous dinosaur, with the tyrannosaurs being the only species of that type in the area.
The grooves clearly indicated that the animals pulled the flesh off the bone in a similar fashion when humans eat a piece of fried chicken. But one segment of the bone contained a bunch of smaller, parallel grooves, which may have been caused by the animal turning its head while eating and dragging its serrated teeth across the bone. The only large theropods found in the Lance Formation were two tyrannosauruses -Tyrannosaurus rex or Nanotyrannus lancensis, suggesting nothing except that tyrannosaurus was cannibal.
If this is really the case, then T. rex remains the only suspect to blame for the teeth marks documented on the tyrannosaur bone discovered and studied by paleontologist Matthew McLain and his colleagues. “There’s just nothing else that has such big teeth”.
While it is obvious that the “dinner peer” was dead when it was eaten by its friend, scientists aren’t too sure if the cannibal tyrannosaur was just a scavenger or killer.
The findings will be presented on the opening day of the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America to be held in Baltimore, Maryland from November 1-4.
The size of the serrated teeth was the valuable clue to determine the size of the animal and also to reveal the ‘nasty little secret 66-million year old family secret’.
Previous work using Komodo dragon teeth has demonstrated the relationship between serration sizes and the size of the animal. “And since Tyrannosauruses are the only large predators in these formations, it is pretty straightforward”.
It is unclear whether the dinosaur was scavenging or killed one of its own kind. But given the more recent example of near definite cannibalism, one shouldn’t rule it out.
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Battles between mega carnivores would have been quite a spectacle, with them attempting to clamp down on their opponent’s neck or jaws to prevent them from fighting back.
