On a summer day in 2006, a fossil hunter named Clayton Phipps made a discovery that ranks among the most spectacular dinosaur finds ever. While exploring the rocky terrain of the Montana hills, he spotted a bit of bone weathering out of the rock. It turned out to be part of the pelvis of a Triceratops. After digging on and off for months, he discovered that it might be a complete skeleton of a 28-foot-long Triceratops.
That’s rare, but that’s not all he found. With it, he unearthed the only 100% complete skeleton of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex that has ever been found. It is 22 feet long, with all the bones are articulated – in their natural positions next to each other – which is very rare. And on top of that, they look like they were locked in battle when they died! This is a spectacular discovery! Only one other pair of apparently fighting dinosaurs – a Velociraptor and Protoceratops – has ever been found.
Did the two dinosaurs die fighting each other? Scientists need more time before they can say for sure. Because there was a long court battle over who owned these bones, they are only just now getting to study them. They know that some of the Tyrannosaurus’ teeth are broken, and that some tyrannosaur teeth are in the Triceratops’ bones and body cavity, but they don’t know yet if those teeth belonged to this Tyrannosaurus. If they do, they could have gotten there in a fight, or it could be that the Tyrannosaurus found a dead Triceratops and took a bite. The Tyrannosaurus’ skull is cracked, and one finger is broken. But if the two creatures were killed by a mudslide, the impact of the mud and the debris it carried might have caused those injuries.
However, it is also reasonable to think that those injuries happened in a fight. Scientists have never found skin impressions from a Triceratops frill – until now. There are also skin impressions on the Tyrannosaurus’ feet And they think some of the soft tissue inside the dinosaurs has been preserved, such as the stomachs. It might be possible to find out the last meal of each of these dinosaurs – before they ran into each other!
Scientists are excited about the chance to study these unique dinosaurs. And very soon, the public will get to see them, too. These “Dueling Dinosaurs,” as they have been nicknamed, will be on show for the public at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, NC, beginning in 2024. I can’t wait to go!
Do you think they died fighting each other? Let me know in the comment section.
Sources (Click Me)
Geggel, Laura. “Cretaceous cold case of ‘dueling’ T. rex and Triceratops may finally be solved.” Live Science. 17 Nov. 2020. https://www.livescience.com/dueling-dinosaurs-fossils-to-museum.html
Greshko, Michael. “’Dueling Dinosaurs’ fossil, hidden from science for 14 years, could finally reveal its secrets.” National Geographic. 17 Nov. 2020. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/dueling-dinosaurs-fossil-finally-set-to-reveal-secrets Accessed 24 Feb. 2021.
Sager, Mike. “Will the Public Ever Get to See the ‘Dueling Dinosaurs’?” Smithsonian Magazine.
July, 2017. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/public-ever-see-dueling-dinosaurs-180963676/
Strickland, Ashley. “’Dueling dinosaurs’ fossils show Triceratops, T. rex, may have died after a battle.” CNN. 18 Nov. 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/17/world/dueling-dinosaurs-triceratops-t-rex-scn-trnd/index.html Accessed 24 Feb. 2021.
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