Footprints suggest that tyrannosaurs were social animals

Western Canadian scientists have discovered the fossilized footprints of three tyrannosaurs that suggest these feared predators may have hunted in packs.

The tyrannosaurus footprint sets first found next to each other are the only clear evidence so far that these dinosaurs may have been social rather than solitary animals.

"The evidence is as strong as possible for fossil evidence that tyrannosaurs were pack animals, " Richard McCrea of ​​the Peace Region Paleontology Research Center, who headed the excavation, told AFP on Thursday.

"This shows that there were three animals traveling together, all going in the same direction, " he explained.

Previously, only individual tyrannosaurus footprints had been discovered in the United States, Canada, and Mongolia.

Parallel trails leading to a rocky cliff near British Columbia's Tumbler Ridge indicate that the three were walking in a group, "heading southeast down an 8.5-meter-wide corridor, " according to a study published by McCrea's team. in PLOS ONE magazine.

Scientists cited "similarities in depth and preservation" of the trails as evidence that they were made by animals "walking in the same direction simultaneously."

The three-fingered footprints of these huge bipeds, with powerful jaws and small front paws, were discovered by a local guide in 2011 in what must have been soft mud 70 million years ago.

The excavation, which continues, revealed seven footprints in total.

They are believed to have been covered and preserved by volcanic ash, only to be exposed years later by cliff erosion.

The footprints - each one meter long - belong to adult animals of different sizes.

The discovery also brings valuable new insights into how tyrannosaurs moved.

"His pace was very slow, with very little foot rotation, " McCrea noted. "It's not very efficient locomotion: very long steps, almost four meters, " he added.

"We had no idea they walked like this, " he concluded.

Via InAbstract