Tyrannosaurs viciously bit each other on the face, though likely not with the intention to kill. Rather, these biting brawls were probably the result of different individuals' competing for prizes, such as territory, mates or higher status, a new study finds.
Researchers made the discovery after analyzing 202 tyrannosaur skulls and jaws that had a total of 324 scars. Almost immediately, the team realized that young tyrannosaurs didn't have bite marks on their faces. Instead, about half of the older tyrannosaurs had them, indicating that perhaps only older members of one sex partook in these fights.
"Taken together, we can piece together how these animals were fighting," study lead researcher Caleb Brown, a curator at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada, told Live Science in an email. "They were likely posturing and sizing each other up, then trying to grab each other's heads between their jaws."
