First-of-its-kind tyrannosaur fossil reveals what younglings ate

Fully grown tyrannosaurs were fearsome predators. With powerful jaws and piercing teeth, they could kill huge herbivores larger than themselves. But young tyrannosaurs ate different—and much smaller—prey, paleontologists report today in Science Advances . A new fossil with remains of a last supper confirms these carnivores switched their diet as they grew . “This is a tyrannosaur’s last meal, preserved in stone! How amazing is that?” says Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the new work. “This is direct evidence of what a tyrannosaur was eating—not guesswork.” As heavy as a white rhino, and 9 meters from tooth to tip of tail, the tyrannosaur Gorgosaurus libratus was king of the land some 77 million years ago in what is now Alberta in Canada. Based on fossilized poop and gnawed bones, researchers know adults used their bone-crushing teeth to eat large plant-eating dinos the size of an African elephant, such as Triceratops and duck-billed dinosaurs. What young tyrannosaurs ate, however, has been a matter of debate because their skulls and teeth look less sturdy than those of adults. This different anatomy, researchers think, indicates that their diet probably changed as they grew. Researchers found a fossil of a young Gorgosaurus from Dinosaur Provincial Park in Canada, with two half-eaten Citipes dinosaurs in ...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research