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Updated January 18th, 2021 at 19:54 IST

Certain dinosaur species were cannibals; bite marks on fossils suggest

Allosaurus, one of the most savage species of dinosaurs, were probably cannibals who eat their own species. Read this article to know more.

Reported by: Arpa C
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Different species of dinosaur once roamed on Earth during the Jurassic era. They were gigantic creatures and have fascinated scientists and palaeontologists since ages. Scientists have tried to use the fossilized remains of dinosaur to find more details about these creatures of a bygone era. They were either carnivorous, herbivorous or omnivores. A newly published research study on the PLOS ONE offered another revelation about Allosaurus, a giant Species of Dinosaur.

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As per the published article, the Allosaurus was probably a cannibal. A team of scientists experimented on the fossil bones which were discovered in 1981. These fossil bones were unearthed from the Mygatt-Moore Quarry area in Colorado. Strikingly, nearly 29 percent of the 2368 bones had bite marks. As per the study, this number is almost six times more than the fossils found in other Jurassic dinosaur sites.

These bones are the remains of Allosaurus, one of the most common predators of that time, and they might have been cannibals who often ate their own kind.

Also read: Spinosaurus Fossil Tail Discovered; Dinosaurs Were Not Just Land Dwellers But Swimmers Too

The findings

The team of scientists examined the bite marks of the fossils in detail. The quarry has fossil bones of different species of dinosaurs from the late Jurassic era. The palaeontologist team found that the fossilized remains of the dinosaur species of Theropod dinosaurs had 29% bite marks.

According to cnet.com, dinosaurs like Allosaurus, Spinosaurus, Ceratosaurus, and T-Rex are theropod dinosaurs. The team examined the bite marks and found that Allosaurus, ceratosaurus, and other newly discovered carnivore dinosaurs were most probably cannibals.

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The bite marks were located in the regions of the carcasses, which provided less nutritional value. Probably, the dinosaurs were not hunting each other. They were just eating the remaining corpses to live. The article further stated that the team of researchers found that there were bite marks of Allosaurus on the allosaurus fossils. That means they were cannibalistic in nature.

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The cnet.com article quoted Stephanie Drumheller, a paleontologist working at the University of Tennessee, who also took part in this research. In a press conference, she told that the larger theropods were not picky about their food, and dinosaurs like the Allosaurus may have eaten anything, even their own kind if there was a constraint of food resources.

The team also said that some bite marks could have resulted from dinosaurs fighting with each other during hunting. But, most of the bite marks are not the result of fights because marks appear in certain places that are only reachable after death.

Also read: Rare Allosaurus Dinosaur Skeleton Up For Auction

The Mygatt-Moore Quarry was a Jurassic era wetland that may have harboured many dinosaurs and is among the top dinosaur sites. The new finding offers some information on how the late Jurassic era predators lived and ate in difficult times and proved that cannibalism was also present in the ancient era.

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Published January 18th, 2021 at 19:54 IST

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