4
April 2003
Fossil find: Dinosaur cannibals
Theropods are a diverse group of bipedal dinosaurs with a claim — by virtue of surviving for 230 million years — to being among the most successful land animals. There have been hints that some theropods may have used cannibalism as one survival technique, a not-uncommon ecological strategy practised by at least 14 species of mammals. Now comes the hardest evidence yet that some theropods were cannibalistic. Three separate fossil beds from the Lower Cretaceous of Madagascar contained numerous dinosaur bones carrying characteristic tooth marks from the theropod Majungatholus atopus — and some of the tooth marks are on bones of Majungatholus.
Cannibalism in the Madagascan dinosaur Majungatholus
atopus
RAYMOND R. ROGERS, DAVID W. KRAUSE &
KRISTINA CURRY ROGERS
Nature 422, 515–518 (2003); doi:10.1038/nature01532
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