大象传媒

T-Rex: Did the Tyrannosaurus Rex hunt in a pack like wolves?

t-rex.Image source, Getty Images

Was the T-Rex dinosaur more sociable than we thought?

For many years, scientists thought that tyrannosaurs were solitary predators, preferring to hunt and live on their own.

However, a group of palaeontologists from the University of Arkansas, in the US, might have discovered a new theory about the fearsome creatures.

The team studied a collection of tyrannosaur fossils found at a dig-site in southern Utah, in the US, and discovered that the group of dinosaurs were together in the same place when they died.

Image source, JOSE ANTONIO PENAS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Image caption,

An artist's drawing of two tyrannosaurs hunting together

Whilst researching the fossils, the palaeontologists did special tests on the rocks and bones at the dig-site.

They found that the dinosaurs were together in the same place when they died, rather than their bones being washed together from different locations.

This led the palaeontologists to wonder if the tyrannosaurs were living together in a group before they died.

Kristi Curry Rogers, a biology professor at Macalester College, said this research is a "good start" but that more studies would need to be done to prove that tyrannosaurs actually lived in social groups.

"It is a little tougher to be so sure that this data means that these tyrannosaurs lived together in the good times," she said.

"It's possible that these animals may have lived in the same vicinity (area) as one another without travelling together in a social group, and just came together around dwindling resources as times got tougher."