Scientists have found a uncommon dinosaur fossil which they consider might shed new mild on the consuming habits of a detailed relative of the tyrannosaurus rex.
The gorgosaurus, from the meat-eating tyrannosaur household, was a smaller cousin of the fearsome T Rex and walked the earth a number of million years earlier.
Experts consider an grownup gorgosaurus would sometimes have feasted on giant plant-eating dinosaurs.
But scientists have now found a juvenile gorgosaurus fossil with the stays of two child dinosaurs inside its abdomen.
The fossil – which is 75 million years outdated – reveals the gorgosaurus had eaten the hindlimbs of the feathered plant-eating dinosaurs, referred to as citipes, shortly earlier than its demise.
This, scientists say, could possibly be proof that, fairly than searching with grownup dinosaurs in multi-generational packs, the food regimen of a gorgosaurus modified because it matured.
Dr Darla Zelenitsky, one of many lead scientists within the examine, advised the BBC the invention was “solid evidence that tyrannosaurs drastically changed their diet as they grew up”.
She mentioned: “We now know that these teenage (tyrannosaurs) hunted small, young dinosaurs.
“These smaller, immature tyrannosaurs had been most likely not prepared to leap into a gaggle of horned dinosaurs, the place the adults weighed hundreds of kilograms.”
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The fossil, the primary tyrannosaur fossil with prey objects preserved inside its abdomen, was initially found in Canada’s Alberta Badlands in 2009.
But it was entombed in rock and took years to be ready for examine, which was printed within the journal Science Advances.
The preliminary discovery was made by workers at Alberta’s Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology, which noticed small toe bones protruding from the rib cage.
Dr Francois Therrien, dinosaur palaeoecology curator on the museum, and the opposite lead scientist within the examine, mentioned: “Adult tyrannosaurs were well-equipped for seizing and killing large prey, like duck-billed dinosaurs and horned dinosaurs.
“Their skulls and enamel had been able to withstanding the key torsional stresses related to biting and holding onto giant prey.
“In contrast, the weaker bites and teeth of young tyrannosaurs were ideal for slashing bites, not holding onto prey. They would have been well-equipped for hunting smaller dinosaur species and young dinosaurs.
“Young tyrannosaurs had blade-like enamel, evenly constructed skulls, comparatively weak bites, lengthy legs and appeared extra ‘athletic’ than grownup tyrannosaurs, which had been very robustly constructed, had large skulls, thicker enamel – typically described as ‘killer bananas’ due to their form – and highly effective bites that allowed them to crush bones.”
Source: information.sky.com”