A dino specimen has been recovered in western Canada and after the detailed study on the specimens researchers found that large Tyrannosaurus dinosaur had injuries which provide evidence for combat and cannibalism.
The skull of the genus of tyrannosaur called Daspletosaurus during his life suffered several injuries and some of the injuries were caused by another Daspletosaurus.
Tyrannosaurs are very active predator and scavenger and are known for terror.
Daspletosaurus is a dinosaur which lived in Canada and it is little smaller than its cousin Tyrannosaurus rex.
Daspletosaurus recovered was not fully grown and is considered as sub-adult. It was 10 year old, 19 feet or 5.8 m long and weight around 1,100 lbs or 500 kg.
Researchers found number of injuries on the skull. These injuries provide evidence for the clashes between Daspletosaurus and other similar species. There are bite injuries on its skull which researchers estimate that the shape of the teeth found on the skull is similar to that of tyrannosaurs teeth. One of the injuries on the back of the head was so severe that it had broken part of the skull and left circular tooth shape puncture through the bone.
The injuries were healed this is indicated by the alterations to the bone surface and the animal survived for some more years after the injuries.
“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 is another member of the same species, suggesting some serious fights between these animals during their lives,” said lead author Dr. David Hone of Queen Mary University of London.
They found that animal was not killed by another tyrannosaur.
The damage to the skull and to other bones and to the jaw bone indicates that after the dinosaur died, tyrannosaur possibly of the same species bit the animal and it ate at least a part of it.
Evidence of combat and cannibalism between dinosaurs is known but this is a unique example providing evidence of both pre and post mortem injuries.
The findings are published in Journal PeerJ.
