Here is what the page “Fossil Bite Marks in Drumheller Suggest Small Raptor Scavenged Apex Predator Albertosaurus” contains. In the badlands near Drumheller, Alberta, paleontologists have uncovered fossilized bite marks on the bones of an Albertosaurus, a large tyrannosaurid apex predator. The discovery, detailed in a new study, presents two starkly different scenarios: either a small raptor scavenged the carcass after death, or a juvenile Albertosaurus engaged in cannibalism. This prehistoric cold case challenges assumptions about Cretaceous food webs, where top predators like Albertosaurus were rarely prey for smaller dinosaurs.
The bite marks, found on a partial skeleton, show characteristics consistent with the teeth of a dromaeosaurid raptor, possibly a Saurornitholestes, which typically fed on much smaller animals. However, the possibility of cannibalism cannot be ruled out, as tyrannosaurids are known to have occasionally fed on their own kind. The full version stays on the original page, which this listing opens directly.