KOMPAS.com – Research reveals it dinosaur ankylosaurus use its hammer-like tail to fight with each other and also to fend off attacks from predators such as tyrannosaurus rex.
The findings were obtained after researchers found fossils of herbivores that lived 76 million years ago.
This discovery also changes how scientists understand dinosaurs and how they used their tails.
Reported by CNN, on Tuesday (12/13/2022) the ankylosaurus had bone plates of various sizes and shapes all over its body that looked like large fingernails.
While examining the fossils, the researchers found nail-like scars on the sides of the dinosaur’s bodies that they believe were caused by impacts ankylosaurus tail other.
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This has led researchers to suggest that ankylosaurs could use their tails as weapons to assert social dominance, establish their own territory, or even fight for mates.
Ankylosaurus who used their tails to fight each other similar to animals like deer and antelopes who use their horns to fight today.
Also, fossils Ankylosaurus tail and his skull was discovered in 2017 at an excavation site in the Judith River Formation in northern Montana.
Paleontologists then worked for years to free the fossil from the 35,000 kilos of sandstone that covered it.
Dinosaur fossils it was so well preserved that remnants of skin and bone armor remain on the dinosaur’s back and sides, making it look remarkably realistic.
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When analyzed the ankylosaurus suffered a rather severe wound at the end of its life near the hip but was able to heal.
However, due to the location of the wounds on the body, the researchers don’t believe they were caused by a predator attack.
Instead, the pattern looks like a wound created by the powerful blow of another ankylosaurus’ hammer tail.
“I’ve been interested in how ankylosaurs used their tails for many years and this is a very exciting new piece of the puzzle,” said Victoria Arbor, lead author of the study and curator of paleontology at Royal British Colombia in Victoria, Canada.
Read also: Herbivorous dinosaur fossil found in Japan
So far, researchers have argued that ankylosaur tails were used to provide resistance to predators. And this new fossil discovery is remarkable in filling that knowledge gap.
“The well-preserved skin offers a glimpse into what ankylosaurs might have looked like in life, while the wounds they sustained tell us how they behaved and interacted with other animals in ancient environments,” added David Evans, co-author of the Royal Museum study. of Ontario in Toronto.
Studies on the tail of the ankylosaurus dinosaur used for fighting were published in the magazine Biology Letters.
Read also: This predatory dinosaur found in Argentina is called the world’s largest megaraptor
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