Fossil sea monsters 75 million years of raw marks the enemy's teeth

The fossil of the dragon dragon, a marine reptile like a dolphin that lived in the dinosaurs, was found with the teeth of the enemy plugging in his face.

American paleontologists discovered a fossil of the dragon's lance (mosasaur) with a tooth on its face, traces left from an attack, Fox News reported on October 28.

"The specimen shows direct and clear evidence of a non-fatal bite between the long- spear spears ," said Takuya Konishi, assistant professor at Cincinnati University, Ohio, at the 76th annual meeting. of Vertebrate Paleontology Association.

A mining company discovered 6.4m long lance in southern Alberta, Canada in 2012 and informed the Royal Tyrrell Paleontology Museum. Museum researchers spend two years cleaning fossils."During that time, the unique shape characteristics of the specimen became obvious. It had another tooth of a long-lingual spear plugged into the lower jaw. We were all amazed and began to study it. " , Konishi said.

Two long-speared spears can fight for the right to pair.(Artwork: Tumblr).

The 74.8 million year old fossil fossil was fully matched, meaning that all its bones were preserved at the site of its discovery. Anatomical analysis and computerized tomography indicate the Mosasaurusgenus species , Konishi said.

The trail of the attack consisted of three injuries and a retained tooth, clearly visible in the left half of the animal. All three wounds showed signs of bone regeneration, indicating that the lizard still survived the attack and recovered before he died.

However, there are two species of longan in the area that found the specimen and at first the researchers did not know which species the tooth belonged to.Prognathodon has strong teeth, can chew a tortoise shell, so it is hard for them to break their teeth during another attack, Konishi speculated.

In contrast, the Mosasaurus spear is more likely to cause an attack because it has long, brittle teeth and is easy to break. The team found no evidence of the bite on the other half of the face, indicating the culprit attacked the animal from below.

According to Konishi, the battle between the two dragon-wounds may be due to competition for mating rights. Loved them with a scaly lizard. Although the dragon was extinct, its distant cousin, the gila (Heloderma suspectum), was famous for fighting for children. Male gila monsters often bite under the opponent's throat to prevent enemies from biting.

"It is possible that the spearman who left the tooth on the specimen also used tactics similar to the biting force from one side of the jaw, strong enough to defeat the enemy but did not kill it," concluded Konishi.