Tyrannosaurus May Have Hunted in Groups According to New Evidence

The T-Rex has a reputation for being a bit of a loner. So much so that it’s difficult to find a picture on Flickr of two of them together, but that may not have been the case. According to new footprint evidence found in British Columbia they may have hunted in family groups. Silly T-Rex. Don’t you know you should travel single file to hide your numbers?

Arguably the best part about this new evidence is that it’s caused a need for researchers to coin a new collective noun for a group of T-rex, and that collective noun is “a terror.” Yup. A terror of tyrannosaurs. Perfect.

What makes the new evidence unique is that it’s the first pathway of multiple tyrannosaur foot prints ever found. Up until now only single footprints have been discovered. The footprints showed that three of the dinosaurs were walking the same direction at roughly the same time. The prints were made in what would have been mud, and were preserved by volcanic ash. For all three sets to be there simultaneously when the ash hit they must have been made at or around the same time.

In their study published by PLOS One, the researchers point out that three sets of footprints in the same direction aren’t just a coincidence, and that the evidence strongly points to group behavior, saying:

…the non-tyrannosaurid trackways are random in regards to compass bearing, which rules out a geographic barrier that might have compelled the tyrannosaurids to walk in the same direction and in close association. The inference that these three animals were moving as a social group is the most parsimonious interpretation based on current data [15] and provides the first trackway evidence showing gregarious behaviour in tyrannosaurs.

While the mud puts the formation of the footprints within a pretty close range depending on certain conditions at the time, it doesn’t guarantee that the tracks were made together, but it’s more likely that it shows the animals traveled together than that three lone predators were hunting in the same area at the same time and happened to walk the same path.

(PLOS One via io9, image via Scott Kinmartin)

Previously in a terror of tyrannosaurus stories

• Turns out T-rex didn’t even need its stupid baby arms
• The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History is finally getting their own T-Rex
• They’re also getting some rare T-rex droppings

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