Twenty years ago, a discovery in Alberta, Canada led to a theory. The remains of 12 tyrannosaurs have been found. Could it be that tyrannosaurs have moved in herds? Were they social carnivores? Or was it just an isolated incident?
More places
A second tyrannosaurus death site was later discovered in Montana. Now a new find has been made. It was at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah (USA). This started the theory again. The conclusions have just been published in the journal ‘Peerj’.
This supports our hypothesis. Tyrannosaurs died in this place and were all petrified together. They died in the same place. They were sociable in their behavior, ”says Celina Suarez. She is an Associate Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Arkansas and one of the authors of the study.
“It’s a synchronous death event for four or five tyrannosaurs. No doubt this group died together. There is evidence that tyrannosaurs were able to interact as sociable herds. ‘This is stated by Philip Currie, a tyrannosaur expert and another author on the study.
It was concluded that the tyrannosaurs died together during a seasonal flood event. They deposited their corpses in the lake. Then a river flowed through the bones, through the bed in which they rested.
Investigators found a chemical fingerprint on the website. They found that the remains were petrified in the same area. They were not the result of a collection of fossils drawn from different areas.
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Excavation of the quarry has continued since its discovery in 2014. Due to the large number of remains, it will continue in the future. In addition to tyrannosaurs, other species have also been found in the place. Turtles, several types of fish and rays, two other types of dinosaurs. There is an almost complete skeleton of a crocodile Deinosuchus Youth.
“These tests connect all of the previous ones. They indicate that tyrannosaurs have moved in herds. They were capable of social behaviors that are common to many of their living relatives, such as birds, “says Joe Sertich, a curator on dinosaurs at the Denver Museum and a contributor to the project.” This discovery should be the turning point. We need to rethink how it is behaved and hunted during the Cretaceous. “
