Plants and Animals

Tyrannosaurs May Have Hunted In Packs Rather Than Being Solitary Predators

Tyrannosaurs May Have Hunted In Packs Rather Than Being Solitary Predators

Among the dinosaurs in theropod was abundant toothed Tyrannosaurus, bipedal muscles. These first appeared as small dinosaurs but eventually grew to the size of Cretaceous, giving birth to the largest land predators still on land around the world (Including the 2.5 billion Tyrannosaurus rex that once existed). 

A new study has found that although a well-developed team of dinosaurs provides new evidence for professional living among our predators, we still need to learn a lot about oppressive nocturnal predators. In short, predatory nature hunters may have thought we were not solitary predators and instead hunted packs. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced research on the collection of fossils found at Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Memorial. It revolves around the tyrant Teratophoneus whose name roughly translates to “monster killer”.

The bunch of Teratophoneus remains in the Rainbow and Unicorns Quarry. It was discover in 2014 by BLM paleontologist Dr. Alan Titus and includes people of all ages, from teenagers to adults. Said world-renowned tyrannosaur expert Dr Philip Currie (for whom Teratophoneus species T. curriei named) in a statement, “Areas that provide insight into the potential behavior of endangered species [such as the Rainbow and Unicorn Quarries] are particularly rare, and very difficult to explain.”

However, according to a study published in the journal Pierre, researchers led by Titus have used this group’s oppressive final resting place to argue the theory of social oppression. “Complementary and enduring excavation techniques, stable isotopes, and charcoal concentrations by the analysis of rare earth elements strongly demonstrate an infectious death in the rainbows of four or five tyrannosaurids,” Cree continues. “Undoubtedly, this group died together, which adds to the growing addition of evidence that tyrannosaurids were able to be negotiated as gregarious pack.” 

The discovery reversed the commonly held belief that oppressive diners were solitary predators, instead indicating that they were social dinosaurs that hunted like social carnivores in packs like wolves. The site that reached this conclusion had a fill path due to a record of some throat fossils. The bones found in this area have probably shown to have grown and reappeared due to a river, which means that their final resting place cannot represent the context in which they died. This means researchers will have to go deeper if they want to establish whether this group of Teratophoneus remnants was collected during life or after death.