Tyrannosaur was perhaps social beast
A RESEARCH group has discovered evidence that a dinosaur famed as a solitary predator could have been more social than once thought.
James Cook University Associate Professor Eric Roberts, who is based in Townsville, was part of the team to examine a “bone bed” in Utah, where a significant number of tyrannosaur fossils were found.
The group has published its findings from inside the Grand Staircase-escalante National Monument, in an area known as the Rainbows and Unicorns Quarry.
The high volume of tyrannosaurid bones found in the quarry gave the group an opportunity to test the theory of whether tyrannosaur, the ancestor of a t-rex, were
“gregarious”. Prof Roberts said when you looked at birds, it was clear the creatures were social, with many flying around together.
“It seems pretty straightforward there was social behaviour,” Prof Roberts said.
“When you think about tyrannosaurs, the view we had is (they were) lone terrors on the landscape.
“Whereas what this study suggests is their behaviour was a bit habitually social.”
Prof Roberts said there was still a lot unknown about the dinosaur, and this was not conclusive proof, but it was the “best evidence”.
The team of researchers working with the Bureau of Land Management in Utah included representatives from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the University of Arkansas, Colby
College of Maine and James Cook University.
World-renowned tyrannosaur expert Dr Phillip Currie said localities like the Rainbows and Unicorns Quarry in southern Utah that gave insights into the possible behaviour of extinct animals were rare and difficult to interpret.
“Traditional excavation techniques, supplemented by the analysis of rare earth elements, stable isotopes and charcoal concentrations convincingly show a synchronous death event at the Rainbows site of four or five tyrannosaurids,” Dr Currie said. “Undoubtedly, this group died together, which adds to a growing body of evidence that tyrannosaurids were capable of interacting as gregarious packs.”
The site was discovered in
2014.