A 66-million-year-old fossil found in eastern Wyoming (USA) has become one of the strongest pieces of evidence to confirm that the tyrannosaurus, a popular paradigm of a fierce dinosaur and ruthless predator , was a cannibal when it came to fruition .
The piece is a fragment –the size of a human forearm– of a bone from the leg of one of these animals; It presents large marks with a size and characteristics that, according to experts, can only be attributed to the bites of a large theropod (suborder of dinosaurs to which the tyrannosaurus belonged). Given that the only theropods that lived in the area at that time were Nanotyrannus lancensis and Tyrannosaurus rex, two types of tyrannosaurs, it is clear that this prehistoric colossus did not disgust the meat of its own.
It is not the first indication of the cannibalism of this fearsome hunter –and scavenger– solitary, the greatest terrestrial carnivore of all time. A study published in PLoS ONE in 2010 showed from tooth marks on other fossils found in the US that popular tyrannosaurs rex ate each other.
And a few months ago, as we already published in Muy, a work carried out by scientists from the University of London and the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta (Canada), found bite marks in fossilized bones of the skull of a Daspletosaurus , belonging to the tyrannosaurus family. According to this research, Daspletosaurus that survived fights with their peers ate the corpses of losers.
These findings will only increase the (bad) fame of the tyrannosaurus, a beast endowed with powerful weapons: estimates made from its fossil remains tell us that it could weigh between 6 and 8 tons, measure more than 12 meters long and reach heights of 6 meters. In addition, it was fast – 50 km / h in the race – and its conical teeth tore and chopped meat , bones and whatever was put in front of them, including congeners.
