Tyrannosaur May Have Killed and Then Cannibalized Fellow Dinosaur

It's a tyrannosaur eat tyrannosaur world when it comes to dinosaurs. Scientists have found a tyrannosaur bone that has peculiar teeth marks that strong suggest it was gnawed by another tyrannosaur.

"We were out in Wyoming digging up dinosaurs in the Lance Formation," said Matthew McLain, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Someone found a tyrannosaur bone that was broken at both ends. It was covered in grooves. They were very deep grooves."

The grooves were the result of an animal pulling the flesh off the bone-similar to the way humans eat a piece of fried chicken. One groove, though, stood out. It was located at the larger end of the bone and contained smaller parallel grooves caused by the diner's head turning, so that the serrated edges of its teeth dragged across the bone.

The serrated teeth ruled out crocodiles and pointed to a theropod dinosaur like T. rex. The fact that the only large theropods found in this are two tyrannosaurs means that this particular dinosaur was actually cannibalized.

"This has to be a tyrannosaur," said McLain. "There's just nothing else that has such big teeth."

The findings also show that the animal was fully dead when it was being eaten. However, the bones don't reveal whether the cannibal was simply scavenging or was also the killer of the tyrannosaur.

Whatever the case, the findings reveal a bit more about the behavior of these massive dinosaurs, and show that cannibalism did occur occasionally.

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