Dinosaur facts

POV: you hear this fact; It has been theorized that Ceratosaurus hunted in and around the water to avoid competition with the larger Allosaurus. Stegosaurus’ four foot long tail spikes called thagomizers, are seen impaling the bones near the pelvic region of Allosaurus. Signs show that Allosaurus survived the ordeal; Utahraptor and Hippodraco are two dinosaurs with such an intense predator-prey relationship, that multiple animals from both species died in a quicksand related incident. In this case, both predator and prey slowly died in an intense struggle to overcome one another; In the late Cretaceous period, Hateg Island (where Romania is today) was a land of opposites. The principal herbivores were dwarf sauropods the size of ponies, and the largest land animals were enormous pterosaurs called Hatzegopteryx, which were the island’s apex predators; The Morison formation would have been one terrifying place to be in the Jurassic period. Home to many deadly predators this place would have been a death trap for any weak herbivores; Edmontonia may not be armed with a deadly tail club but it is thought that it may have used its long shoulder spikes to savagely impale any overconfident attackers; From dinosaur times, there exist bones of the whale-sized ichthyosaur Shonisaurus, arranged in strangely regular geometric patterns. Furthermore, marks resembling tentacle suckers can be found on the bones. Paleontologist Mark McMenamin - and I kid you not - thinks that the reptile was killed by an enormous cephalopod, a 30-meter “Triassic Kraken”, which was intelligent and arranged the skeleton like that deliberately. I’m not joking; In Brazil’s Bauru Basin, during the late Cretaceous, dinosaurs had almost been outcompeted by crocodile relatives. The top predators came from a group called the baurusuchids, which convergently evolved with theropods in many ways, and there was even a small crocodylomorph with a shell like an armadillo. Therizinosaurus may have been a herbivore but this animal was armed with massive claws which may have been used to gather food or impale attackers. A caudal vertebrae from the Cedar formation in Utah allegedly came from a giant specimen of Utahraptor. It would have been up to 11 meters long, the size of an Allosaurus! On the other hand, it could more likely have been from an Acrocanthosaurus. Still a terrifying thought nonetheless. Kaprosuchus or “boar crocodile” is speculated to be a terrestrial predator. It has been theorized that this predator would first ram its prey before clamping on with a powerful bite. Majungasaurus crenatissimus was a carnivore that actively preyed on members of its own species. A cannibalistic killer. Some other Madagascan animals of the time include Madtsoia, a gigantic 8-meter constrictor snake, and Beelzebufo, the largest-ever frog in history. It’s not at all hard to believe that both these creatures ate the dinosaurs of the island. Tyrannosaurs have been known to bite off chunks of each other’s faces, tails, and various other body parts in inter species conflicts. It’s inferred from the fossils that they healed and survived such incidents. Developmental re-ossification is very prominent in theropods like T.rex. It is theorized by some paleontologists that the Ceratosaurus may have carried a venom esque bacteria in its bite. This is due to the shape and size of the teeth, which are very correspondent to the teeth of bacteria baring reptiles. Mei long is a small species of maniraptoran theropod from China, dozens of these animals fell asleep in a communal fashion, and were killed during a volcanic eruption, all while still in resting position. The Hilda mega-bonebed was a vast formation in Canada that preserved the remains of several thousand Centrosaurus. They were all believed to have drowned during a particularly violent flood caused by a meteor. It was the largest mass grave in the fossil record. What a way to go. Birds are dinosaurs, so birds could well be our best source on the behaviour of extinct dinosaurs. Some paleoartists have imagined, albeit casually, that large theropods might have mimicked trees, like modern potoos and frogmouths do. Seeing a dead tree come to life as a Tarbosaurus would certainly be terrifying. Large theropods like Tyrannosaurus are scary enough on their own but did you know that the South-American Mapusaurus may have hunted in packs! Imagine a group of these guys swarming you…; Triceratops was once considered an invalid genus; Speaking of triceratops, Ceratopsians like Triceratops aren’t just frightening due to their horns. It has been speculated that these dinosaurs would scavenge off meat to supplement their diets. Skeletal remains of various creatures, small ornithopods, crocodiles, and turtles have been found in sauropod dinosaur footprints. That’s because Argentinosaurus huincelensis and other giant sauropods were so big that in a moist enough environment, their bodyweight could conduce a deep enough footprint that multiple small creatures could fall in, sink, suffocate, and die in the mud. A pile of corpses in another animals’ unweary leftovers. An unfortunate titanosaur had it’s bones infected with tiny bloodworms that caused a severe case of osteomyelitis. In life, the infection was so severe, that is was practically a zombie…