Comments on: Did Tyrannosaurus Ever Battle Triceratops?

By: Maureen S.

Maureen S. — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 18:40:44 +0000

From a contemporary zoological perspective, there’s no reason to suspect that apex predators attacked Triceratops. Rhinos are only hunted by non-human predators when the rhinos are infants, and even that is pretty rare. There were plenty of more attractive meals for large predators during the Cretaceous.

By: Herman Diaz

Herman Diaz — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:41:16 +0000

@Shane

1stly, Komodo dragons don’t kill like that ( http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=komodo-dragon-kills-with-venom-not-2009-05-18 ).

2ndly, T.rex wouldn’t have needed to kill like that, given its bone-crushing bite.

By: Leigh

Leigh — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:13:16 +0000

According to your “both a hunter and a scavenger link”:

“Oddly enough, some of the best evidence of tyrannosaur hunting come from two animals that escaped attacks by the dinosaur: an Edmontosaurus with a partially healed bite along its tail and a Triceratops skull showing a similar type of damage. Since Tyrannosaurus was the only gigantic predator known from the habitats in which the injured herbivores were found, it is probable that the dinosaurs were survivors of Tyrannosaurus attacks.”

Does it not count because the perpetrator might have been an unknown, non-Tyrannosaur gigantic predator?

By: Herman Diaz

Herman Diaz — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 00:19:00 +0000

“So far, no one has found direct evidence of a Tyrannosaurus versus Triceratops battle. A healed bite wound on a Triceratops skeleton or an injured Tyrannosaurus bone corresponding to damage that could have only been made by a horn would provide paleontologists with a sign that these dinosaurs actually fought.”

W/all due respect, we have found direct evidence for such a battle in the form of “a healed bite wound on a Triceratops skeleton” (See Happ 2008 in “Tyrannosaurus rex, the Tyrant King”).

By: Shane

Shane — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 17:28:24 +0000

I think it killed its prey much like the Komodo Dragon. It bites, which infects the prey with bacteria. A day or so later the prey dies of disease and T-Rex then feeds on the corpse.

By: Tim Donovan

Tim Donovan — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 12:22:25 +0000

I was referring to Happ’s study beginning on page 355, which precedes the chapter by T. Holtz cited above, but for some reason, wasn’t included….

By: Tim Donovan

Tim Donovan — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 12:14:59 +0000

What about the SUP study, in TYRANNOSAURUS THE TYRANT KING? The bitten horn and raked frill? Healed bite marks indicate tyrannosaurs fought hadrosaurs, Triceratops even ankylosaurs.

By: Mark Robinson

Mark Robinson — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 05:29:11 +0000

“A healed bite wound on a Triceratops skeleton…”

I’m sure that there are a couple of examples of apparently healed bite marks on ceratopsians which have been attributed to tyrannosaurids, including at least one that indicates an aggressive interaction between the two above-mentioned”classic foes”. Or is this not widely accepted?

Ref: Happ, John; and Carpenter, Kenneth (2008). “An analysis of predator–prey behavior in a head-to-head encounter between Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops”. In Carpenter, Kenneth; and Larson, Peter E. (editors). Tyrannosaurus rex, the Tyrant King (Life of the Past). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 355–368

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 02:19:10 +0000

Correct me if I’m mistaken, but wasn’t there a triceratops skull that had its horn bitten off by a T. Rex? The horn showed bone regrowth, if I remember; therefore, it must have survived at least the hunt.

By: albertonykus

albertonykus — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:32:39 +0000

While I agree with the general theme of the post, healed injuries are known in Triceratops that may have resulted from head-on encounters with Tyrannosaurus.

By: Denver Fowler

Denver Fowler — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:41:37 +0000

Thanks for the posting. Interested folks can skim the details of our data on my website:

http://www.denverfowler.com/publications/Fowler_et_al_2012.htm

We don’t say that these are marks made in life-death struggles (we actually specifically pointed out you can’t know that from the marks). These specimens are an opportunity to ask what it is possible to know based on evidence. There is currently no evidence that shows active predation for any tyrannosaur (W4TP). They might very well have been active predators (I can ASSUME so), but testing this hypothesis is tough. The specimens we collected and describe are DATA that test the predictions of hypothetical models.

Anyway, all this was touched upon on the poster, and we’ll go into much more detail in the paper. Thanks again.