Abstract
Bite marks on bones can provide critical information about interactions between carnivores and animals they consumed (or attempted to) in the fossil record. Data from such interactions is somewhat sparse and is hampered by a lack of records in the scientific literature. Here, we present a rare instance of feeding traces on the frill of a juvenile ceratopsian dinosaur from the late Campanian Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta. It is difficult to determine the likely tracemaker(s) but the strongest candidate is a small-bodied theropod such as a dromaeosaur or juvenile tyrannosaur. This marks the first documented case of carnivore consumption of a juvenile ceratopsid, but may represent scavenging as opposed to predation.
Highlights
Bite marks on the bones of fossils can provide important information as to the palaeoecology of ancient ecosystems and as indicators of trophic interactions between animals
The specimen is from the lower Dinosaur Park Formation (~5 m above the contact with the underlying Oldman Formation), and falls between the radiometrically dateable Jackson
We follow the system of Hone & Watabe (2010) as this was created to refer to a series of theropod traces and has been used by a number of different research groups to identify and classify bite marks on dinosaur, and other Mesozoic reptile, bones
Summary
Bite marks on the bones of fossils can provide important information as to the palaeoecology of ancient ecosystems and as indicators of trophic interactions between animals. Bites may have been made by multiple different tracemaker species, or at different times, and traces can potentially be altered through erosion or transport which further restricts interpretations This makes interpretations of bite trace data difficult, it means that every recorded bite event may be valuable as it is only through the collection and assessment of large datasets that patterns can be assessed. In this context, unusual or rare marks may be especially important for determining the range of possible interactions and events based on theropod bites. Tyrannosauridae) feeding on the young of a much larger-bodied taxon
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