by Fossil footprints discovered in Canada show that different dinosaur species were sometimes driven together and more light throw on social interaction between prehistoric beasts.
The footprints in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada, are the first discovery of this kind.
An analysis of the fossil site, which is listed in the magazine Plos oneprovides the first piece of concrete evidence of mixed species behavior under dinosaurs, similar to the modern foundation and the zebra together in the African levels.
Researchers, including from the University of Reading in Great Britain, said they were surprised to find fossil traces of a couple of tyrannosaurs who walk side by side and are perpendicular to the herd with several species.
Such multicrouses could have been a defense strategy against common APEX predators such as T Rexes, according to the researchers.
The researchers found 13 horned dinosaurs tracks of at least five animals that go side by side on the 30 square meters of the previous fossil location. They also noticed tracks that indicate that a armored dinosaurs like the Ankylosaurus went in the middle of the herd.
The fossil route that stretches into a slope in the park also wore the footprint for a small, carnivorous dinosaurs.
“I collected dinosaur bones in the dinosaur provincial park for almost 20 years, but I had never considered much. This edge of rocks had a mud that had been organized between her toes, and I was immediately fascinated,” said Phil Bell, one of the authors of the study from the University of New England.
“The Tyrannosaurs traces give the feeling that they claim the herd in mind, which is a rather frightening thought, but we don’t know whether they have crossed the paths.”
The researchers discovered several other track sites inside the park’s different terrain, which said they should be checked correctly.
“It was incredibly exciting to run 76 million years after her alloy in the footsteps of dinosaurs,” said Brian Pickles, another study author at the University of Reading.
Further excavations at the location could be more details about how dinosaurs interacted with each other and behaved in their natural environment, said Dr. Pickles.
“Dinosaur Park is one of the best disturbed dinosaur assemblies worldwide with more than a century of intensive collection and study,” said Caleb Brown, another author of the study, “but only now do we get a feeling for his full potential for dinosaur trackways.”
