Scars on the jaw of a 120-million-year-old marine reptile suggest that life might not have been easy in the ancient polar oceans. The healed bite wounds were probably made by a member of the same species. Such injuries give important clues about the social behaviour of extinct sea creatures from the time of dinosaurs. Found in the remote desert near the town of Marree in northern South Australia, the fossilised skeleton belonged to an ichthyosaur, a dolphin-like marine reptile that lived during the 'Age of Dinosaurs'. Ichthyosaurs were fast swimming predators that fed on fish and squid-like animals. Adults would have been around six metres in length and had long-snouted heads with over 100 pointed, crocodile-like teeth. The surprising discovery of well preserved bite marks on the bones of the ichthyosaur's lower jaw were made during painstaking cleaning and reassembly of its skeleton in the laboratory. Evidence of advanced healing indicates that the animal survived the attack and lived on for some time afterwards. Pathological traces on ancient fossilised bones and teeth give unique insights into the lives and social behaviours of extinct animals.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110504080942.htm
That is pretty cool, it seems like things in "the dinosaur ages" were like how things are now. The strongest survive, we have seen attacks of the same species of animals on their own kind.. I wouldnt mind seeing how the animal looked back then
ReplyDeleteI think this is really awesome. I like how we can use things like fossils from the past to show us what life was like a long time ago, and also even the behavior of animal's can be seen. I agree with Rick in saying that it sounds similar to our animals behavior now, survival of the fittest.
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