An analysis of the fossilized vertebrate remains from the Jurassic Mygatt-Moore Quarry in Colorado has revealed the bones of a theropod dinosaur called Allosaurus that bear tooth marks made by this and other large-bodied carnivorous dinosaurs.

Definitive evidence through striated tooth marks has been recorded only in Tyrannosaurus rex and Majungasaurus crenatissimus, but never before in Allosaurus.

Drumheller and her colleagues from Colorado Mesa University, Museums of Western Colorado, and Daemen College analyzed fossils from the Mygatt-Moore Quarry, a 152-million-year-old fossil deposit in western Colorado, looking for bite marks.

Types of bite marks observed in the Mygatt-Moore Quarry assemblage with arrows indicating features of note: (A) striated marks produced by ziphodont tooth on an Allosaurus sp.

“Given the relative abundances of the Mygatt-Moore Quarry carnivores, partnered with the size-estimates based on the striated bite marks, the feeding trace assemblage likely preserves the first evidence of cannibalism in Allosaurus.”.

High frequencies of theropod bite marks provide evidence for feeding, scavenging, and possible cannibalism in a stressed Late Jurassic ecosystem