Dinosaur Life-or-Death Chases Recreated
An imagined Dino Derby race between a tyrannosaur and an hadrosaur.
Niroot Puttapipat
10 Unbelievable Dinos That Really Existed
University of Wisconsin/Ryan Steiskal
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Some researchers believe the ancient bird Confuciusornis had leg feathers, which formed another pair of wings.
Xing Xu et al., Science
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Plant-eating dinosaurs called sauropods had the longest necks in the animal kingdom.
Francisco Gascó under the direction of Mike Taylor and Matt Wedel
Octavio Mateus, Universidade Nova de Lisboa & Museu da Lourinhã
Science/AAAS
Tyler Keillor
Michael A. Digiorgio
Julius Csotonyi 2012
Brian Choo
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Large plant-munching dinosaurs used a number of tactics, including kicking, biting and running for their lives, to avoid becoming the dinner of a dino like T. rex , a new study finds.
The study, published this week in the Indiana University Press compendium "Hadrosaurs," helps to explain why the fossils for these and other plant-eating dinosaurs often outnumber those for carnivores. Many outwitted, outfought and outlasted the big carnivores.
Some even resorted to karate-style kicks and tail whacks.
This brontosaurus only looks angry because it never technically existed.
Getty Images
"There are very few large animals that, when attacked, cannot defend themselves by kicking, biting or lashing out with whatever kind of appendages they've got," co-author Scott Persons told Discovery News.
He and fellow University of Alberta paleontologist Phil Currie studied tyrannosaur avoidance strategies by examining how other dinosaurs coexisted with colossal carnivores like T. rex and its tyrannosaur relatives.
Persons and Currie said that some plant-eating dinosaurs evolved formidable big horns or boney suits of spiked armor, turning the dinosaurs into walking fortresses. Still others evolved lightweight bodies and extra-long legs, giving them the speed to zip away from predators.
Hadrosaurs, also known as duck-billed dinosaurs, had none of those evolved features, so how could any of them survive?
First, hadrosaurs had extremely keen senses -- they could sniff or spot T. rex in an instant.
Second, hadrosaurs traveled in large packs.
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