back to article 'This BITE MARK is a SMOKING GUN': Boffins probe ancient assault

Top brainboxes using advanced technology say they may have found a "smoking gun" in the form of a bite mark inflicted during a long-ago battle between a mighty dinosaur and another giant reptile. Dino bite rumble smoking gun action The bite mark in question dates from the late Triassic era, and was found in a rare fossil …

  1. Semtex451
    Coat

    Nice.

    Course I'd be more impressed if they found gun shot wounds.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They probably meant "Smoking Gum". Having a tooth yanked out of your jaw like that probably hurt quite a bit...

      1. Rich 11

        Having a tooth yanked out of your jaw like that probably hurt quite a bit...

        I'm not sure about phytosaurs or rauisucids, but the later theropods were constantly growing new teeth and shedding their teeth, just as sharks did then and still do today. We've got plenty of examples of discarded, worn carnivore teeth from the period, including some found close to bones showing matching bite marks. It's the fact that a tooth got stuck in a wound (now that would have hurt!) and the bone healed around it that tells us so much more about these creatures than just another shed tooth.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'd be more impressed if they found gun shot wounds.

      Yeah. I can't help feeling "smoking gun" is not a terribly apt metaphor for a multi-million year old fossil dinosaur bite.

      1. Steve the Cynic

        Re: I'd be more impressed if they found gun shot wounds.

        "Yeah. I can't help feeling "smoking gun" is not a terribly apt metaphor for a multi-million year old fossil dinosaur bite."

        The sub-headline made me think of Existenz, where they had a gun that fired teeth...

      2. Trigonoceps occipitalis

        Re: I'd be more impressed if they found gun shot wounds.

        But was one wearing a wrist watch?

    3. pyroweasel
      Coat

      Guns don't kill 'raptors...

  2. Ginolard
    Joke

    Had to be done..

    The lesser-known Suarezasaurus?

  3. Cipher
    Coat

    If the tooth doesn't fit, you must acquit...

  4. Jungleland
    Happy

    The original Rumble in the Jungle.

  5. bigtimehustler

    Why is this surprising? Modern day crocodiles regularly kill larger creatures who come near the water. It is more about surprise, technique and one of the creatures being out of its comfort zone...ie in the water!

    1. Triggerfish

      Agreed this is what I was thinking and animal adapted to the water has plenty of advantage if its in its element. I am thinking as well creatures like fish, have a greater percentage of muscle mass compared with us land animals probably since they don't have to support themselves so much against gravity, admittedly a crocodilian uses the land but modern salties are about 50% muscle mass. so size may not be everything.*

      *insert suitable joke here.

    2. Vic

      It is more about surprise, technique and one of the creatures being out of its comfort zone

      Not ruthless efficiency? Almost-fanatical devotion to the Pope?

      Vic.

  6. Eponymous Cowherd
    Boffin

    Not dinosaurs

    either of them.

    As different from a dinosaur as a modern croc is from an ostrich.

  7. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Coat

    Triassic Park

    Don't let anybody in Hollywood get the idea of 3D printed archeosaurs living in a park.

    1. Cipher

      Re: Triassic Park

      Giraffic Park

  8. TitterYeNot
    Coat

    Fossil-furtling

    What an excellent expression.

    Reminds me of Wayne Rooney for some reason...

  9. ravenviz Silver badge
    Boffin

    the notion that the larger dino will win in a fight

    Maybe it was ill.

    1. Triggerfish

      I don't wanna go on the cart.

  10. VeganVegan
    Mushroom

    Ham, that's what's for dinner

    a favourite since the Triassic.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ham, that's what's for dinner

      Two words...

      Dino Sarnie

    2. Mark 85

      Re: Ham, that's what's for dinner

      Since it wasn't cured or smoked, it's probably more like steak tartare without the egg. "So rare you can hear the beast scream when you eat it".

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I guess the dinosaur should have listened to Matt Hooper...

    But no, it waited until this particular problem swam up and bit it in the ass!!

    (And yes, we're going to need a bigger boat!)

  12. Captain DaFt

    An off the cuff remark was responsible:

    "Bite my scaly ass!"

  13. JCitizen
    Holmes

    Rare?

    I'm sure it isn't an everyday thing to find such fossils, but maybe it would be more common if paleontologists did more volunteer work, instead of just paid work studies. I've probably worked for free at least 1/4 of my life probing, walking, and digging for anything interesting, and I and my buddies have found bullets not made since 1886 embedded in bones and other artifacts, fossils with sharks teeth embedded in bone of who knows what, in fact it isn't sure what animal bit what other animal, but I am lucky enough to live in a region where one of the largest shallow seas was existent in the CT boundary. We've also found paleolithic arrow heads, knives, and spear points embedded in antlers and bone from the period - these are not tools or such fabrications but obviously from chaotic happenstance - my buddy is a collector and doesn't want to sell them, so he does not share the booty with archaeologists. I've been trying to get him to keep notes and at least record the GPS coordinates so scientists can follow up with studies some time in the future! Perhaps these boffins need to get out more?

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