Bonus Dinosaur of the Week--Bite Marks!

One aspect of paleontological research that has always fascinated me is how amazingly similar many of the events that occurred countless millions of years ago are to those found in modern ecosystems--in this case that of the countless and wide-varied interactions between predators and their prey, and even those between the predators themselves.

One of these behaviors is something known as 'head biting'--a behavior observed amongst living animals in which competing rivals (over a mate, territory, a corpse, many things) fight amongst each other for control over whatever it is that they have their eyes set on.

And because each of these animals are trying to assert their dominance over the other and would like to keep themselves as intact as possible, the head is a frequent target (keeping the rival in their sights).

Also, because carnivores of aeons past had the same goals in mind as those living today (self-preservation and reproduction) and very similar tools to do so with (teeth and jaws!), they very likely ran into similar encounters and bouts of combat.

As it turns out, we can find signs of these encounters throughout the fossil record!

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