Travis Duggins Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 I found what looks to be a large dinosaur fossil fragment with bite marks of some sort on it. What type of animal would this be? And what caused these marks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hadrosauridae Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 Well, I came ready to say "I dont see evidence of...." But I think you may very well have a fragment with predation marks. Its unlikely anyone can give you positive ID. Its an un-associated chunk-o-saurus that could be from a lot of animals. For a best guess, we need the formation and location, at least to the state and county found. 1 1 "There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travis Duggins Posted June 7, 2021 Author Share Posted June 7, 2021 6 minutes ago, hadrosauridae said: Well, I came ready to say "I dont see evidence of...." But I think you may very well have a fragment with predation marks. Its unlikely anyone can give you positive ID. Its an un-associated chunk-o-saurus that could be from a lot of animals. For a best guess, we need the formation and location, at least to the state and county found. The Fossil was found near Ryegate, Montana USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePhysicist Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 (edited) Cool find! These marks do indeed closely match known bite marks. Compare to T. rex tooth score marks: ^ from "Cannibalism in Tyrannosaurus rex" Based on the locality, I'm guessing these are Tyrannosaur tooth marks. Based on the size of the marks, and the fact that other theropods like Dromaeosaurs rarely munched on bone (as suggested in the above reference). Even if you can figure out which formation it's from, I don't think you can assign a specific species, as multiple Tyrannosaurs lived in Judith River, and possibly in Hell Creek / Lance. As for the bone itself, it could be a rib fragment, but from an indeterminant animal, likely Ceratopsian or Hadrosaur. Edited June 7, 2021 by ThePhysicist "Argumentation cannot suffice for the discovery of new work, since the subtlety of Nature is greater many times than the subtlety of argument." - Carl Sagan "I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." - Richard Feynman Collections: Hell Creek Microsite | Hell Creek/Lance | Dinosaurs | Sharks | Squamates | Post Oak Creek | North Sulphur River | Lee Creek | Aguja | Permian | Devonian | Triassic | Harding Sandstone Instagram: @thephysicist_tff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travis Duggins Posted June 8, 2021 Author Share Posted June 8, 2021 On 6/7/2021 at 12:52 PM, ThePhysicist said: Cool find! These marks do indeed closely match known bite marks. Compare to T. rex tooth score marks: ^ from "Cannibalism in Tyrannosaurus rex" Based on the locality, I'm guessing these are Tyrannosaur tooth marks. Based on the size of the marks, and the fact that other theropods like Dromaeosaurs rarely munched on bone (as suggested in the above reference). Even if you can figure out which formation it's from, I don't think you can assign a specific species, as multiple Tyrannosaurs lived in Judith River, and possibly in Hell Creek / Lance. As for the bone itself, it could be a rib fragment, but from an indeterminant animal, likely Ceratopsian or Hadrosaur. Wow I cannot believe I have found something so cool!! Thank you guys for your input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now