Raptors Versus Rexes

Publication Info:

Transcript:

Joshua Adam Doyon et al, Evidence for dromaeosaurid scavenging on Albertosaurus (Dinosauria: Tyrannosauridae), Journal of Paleontology (2026). DOI: 10.1017/jpa.2026.10269

Something chewed on this Canadian Tyrannosaurus Rex relative and some brand new research might be letting paleontologists know who it was!

Episode 356

Notes:

So, do you think this ever happened in real life? I mean, take away the humans and the visitor center and the park and the the CGI and they you know what I mean. Do you ever think in real life Velociraptors attacked T-Rex Well, also that never happened because they didn't live in the same place, but you get the general idea of what I'm saying. Do you think Dromaeosaurs ever ate Tyrannosaur meat? And I know someone's going to say, "Yeah, of course they did. Dromaeosaurs lived in the same ecosystems as Tyrannosaurs. Of course, they're not going to hesitate to scavenge them." And you're right, but that's an assumption and that doesn't have evidence. And we talk about paleontology here, not paleo assumptions. Anyway, there wasn't any evidence. Now, there might be and even if this isn't evidence of that happening, it's strangely kind of weirder and cooler. This is an Albertosaurus bone. Albertosaurus being the famous Canadian T-Rex relative. And it has small tooth marks on it with no healing, meaning that it was most likely scavenged, but definitely didn't survive being eaten, which I guess is the best case scenario. And after years of exhaustive work trying to identify these small bite marks, paleontologists have determined that there are most likely two options. First, more likely one is a Dromaeosaur living in the same ecosystem. You know, Dromaeosaurs being the relatives of Velociraptors and Deinonychus, making this the first concrete evidence for Dromaeosaurs eating a Tyrannosaur. The second option is less likely, but honestly just as interesting because the other predator that could match the size is a juvenile Albertosaurus, meaning that a juvenile Albertosaurus was chowing down on its own kind, which is well, weird for humans, but kind of normal for a lot of animals, but it is still really cool to find fossil evidence of it. As usual, if you want more information, here's the source.