Dinosaur cannibalism was real, and Colorado paleontologists have the bones to prove it
Fossils collected from the Mygatt-Moore Quarry, which lies near the border between Colorado and Utah and dates back to around 150 million years ago, bore an unusually high number of bite marks. (Brian Engh/)A series of bite marks on fossilized bones from present-day Colorado reveal that the Jurassic dinosaur Allosaurus was not above eating members of its own species. The findings are the first direct evidence of cannibalism for this group of predatory dinosaurs, paleontologists reported May 27 in the journal PLoS ONE. The researchers also found that fossils collected from the Mygatt-Moore Quarry, which lies near the border between Colorado and Utah and dates back to around 150 million years ago, bore an unusually high number of bite marks. This may mean that Allosaurus and its neighbors were living under difficult conditions and were forced to scavenge any scrap of food they could find.“At this site they’re eating every...