Rare fossil reveals 'destroyer of shins' dinosaurs fought each other

Damage to the spikes connected the backmost of a fossil of a Zuul crurivastator suggest that these armoured dinosaurs didn’t usage their process clubs to fend disconnected Tyrannosaurs but to combat each other

Life 7 December 2022

By Sam Jones

Artist’s content of Zuul crurivastator successful battle

Henry Sharpe

Zuul, destroyer of shins, was a surviving tank. This dinosaur’s spine and process were covered successful armoured plates studded with spikes, ending successful a nine antecedently thought to beryllium utilized to combat disconnected vicious predators similar the Tyrannosaurus rex. But a uncommon fleshy fossil suggests these armoured herbivores astir apt utilized their tails little to fend disconnected T. rex and much to predominate each other.

Zuul crurivastator’s sanction comes from the demonic Zuul from the 1984 movie Ghostbusters, with crurivastator meaning “destroyer of shins”. Its fossil was discovered astir a decennary agone – during a excavation successful Montana to unearth a Gorgosaurus, an earlier relative of T. rex – erstwhile excavators bumped into the dinosaur’s process club. Years later, erstwhile researchers astatine the Royal Ontario Museum successful Toronto were preparing the fossil for exhibition, they recovered that immoderate of the fossil’s spikes were damaged. Many of these had creaseless areas indicating the bony had reformed, and immoderate had growths of keratin – some signs of healing, suggesting injuries connected aggregate occasions.

“The [damaged spikes] are conscionable successful this small scope astir the hips, and conscionable connected the sides of the body,” says Victoria Arbour at the Royal BC Museum successful British Columbia. They’re not breached connected the apical of the assemblage oregon up by the head, which is wherever you’d expect a predator similar T. rex to attack, she says.

“Big, predatory dinosaurs tin wound with capable unit to permission scratches and puncture marks connected bone,” says Arbour. But these marks are missing connected this fossil.

Based connected the damaged spikes being astatine antithetic stages of healing, and successful a determination some easy reachable by different Z. crurivastator’s swinging process and improbable to beryllium fatal, the researchers judge the dinosaurs utilized their tails to combat each different for societal dominance. They fishy it was akin to the mode modern animals usage antlers oregon different assemblage parts to involvement assertion to territory oregon mates. So, though the club-like process whitethorn person travel successful useful for self-defence, its improvement was astir apt driven much by intersexual enactment than predation So, though the club-like process whitethorn person travel successful useful for self-defence, its improvement was astir apt driven much by intersexual enactment than predation.

The thought of these dinosaurs utilizing their process clubs to combat disconnected T. rex had “become thing of a textbook stereotype”, says Stephan Lautenschlager at the University of Birmingham successful the UK. He sees this survey arsenic a premier illustration of however a long-standing proposal tin beryllium upended with caller evidence. “Now that palaeontologists cognize what to look for, the aforesaid harm successful other, possibly yet-undiscovered, fossils could travel to light,” helium says.

Journal reference: Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2022.0404

More connected these topics:

• dinosaurs