Tasty Snack for T. Rex: Another T. Rex

Paleontologist finds evidence of cannibalism
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 16, 2010 1:59 PM CDT
Tasty Snack for T. Rex: Another T. Rex
A Tyrannosaurs Rex robotic dinosaur in the O2 arena in London in 2009.    (Getty Images)

It looks like T. Rex was a cannibal. So says a Yale paleontologist who found telltale bone gouges on a fossil of the giant dinosaur that make it all but certain it had been eaten by a fellow T. Rex. That prompted him to take a closer look at other T. Rex fossils, where he found evidence of at least three more such cases, reports LiveScience. Whether they were deliberate attacks just instances of scavenging is impossible to tell.

"It's surprising how frequent it appears to have been," says the scientist. "It could mean that they were really thorough at cleaning up after animals died in the environment. Or it could mean that they were killing and eating each other fairly often." Prior to this, scientists knew of only one other cannibal dinosaur, but the finding could change the thinking that the practice was rare. For more, click here. (More T. rex stories.)

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