Buzz
Fossils are the only evidence we have that dinosaurs ever lived. Fossils can be divided into two categories: the first includes body parts like bones and teeth, which we commonly associate with fossils. The second category consists of traces, such as tooth marks, footprints, and excrement.
Throughout the years, we have discovered some fascinating fossils that seem frozen in time. The phrase “frozen in time” refers to the fact that these fossils often reveal specific moments in the dinosaur's life, including how it might have looked or what it was doing just before its death.
10. Two Dinosaurs Engaged in Combat
In the untamed wilderness, it is no surprise that animals engage in life-or-death struggles with one another. Dinosaurs, too, were part of this cycle. In 1971, scientists in Mongolia's Gobi Desert discovered the remains of two dinosaurs—one attempting to kill the other.
Yet, there was no victor. Both dinosaurs either met their end instantly or perished when a sand dune collapsed upon them, preserving their fossilized remains in a frozen combat pose that would be uncovered 74 million years later.
The dinosaurs involved were the carnivorous Velociraptor and the plant-eating Protoceratops. The Velociraptor had encountered the Protoceratops and attempted to make a meal of it.
The Protoceratops fought back, sparking what would become a relentless struggle. The Velociraptor drove its foot claw into the Protoceratops' neck, severing a crucial artery. In retaliation, the Protoceratops threw the Velociraptor to the ground and clamped down on its right arm.
Researchers cannot confirm what happened next, but they consider two possibilities. The dinosaurs may have been killed instantly when a heavy rain triggered a sand dune to collapse on them. Alternatively, the creatures could have remained locked in place until the Protoceratops succumbed to blood loss from its neck wound, after which the weight of the Protoceratops crushed the Velociraptor.
9. T. rex Chases a Sauropod
In 1938, Roland Bird, a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History, made an extraordinary discovery: the 111-million-year-old footprints of both a sauropod and a T. rex. The two sets of tracks ran side by side and even intersected in some places. While researchers cannot definitively determine the events, they have proposed some intriguing theories.
One theory suggests that the T. rex was chasing the sauropod and may have even bitten it at one point. This conclusion is based on the fact that the T. rex appeared to have missed a step, implying that it raised its leg during an attempt to bite the sauropod.
On the other hand, some researchers believe the T. rex was not chasing the sauropod, but rather stalking it. Regardless of which theory is correct, it is clear that the T. rex was not wandering aimlessly, as its footprints followed the same path as the sauropod's. These footprints were discovered in Glen Rose, Texas.
8. The Predator That Became Prey
Birds such as ospreys and fish eagles thrive by feeding solely on fish they capture from the water. But they aren’t the first airborne creatures to hunt fish. Flying animals have been catching fish ever since they mastered flight. Enter the pterosaur.
The pterosaur was the first animal to take flight. It wasn’t a bird but a reptile closely related to dinosaurs and crocodiles.
Pterosaurs, dinosaurs, and reptiles all fall under a classification called archosaurs. In 2009, scientists uncovered 155-million-year-old fossils of a pterosaur,
From the unusual positions of the fossils, researchers realized they had uncovered a rare hunting scene. The pterosaur was going about its usual business of catching fish from the water when it was ambushed by an Aspidorhynchus. The Aspidorhynchus grabbed the pterosaur by its wing and dragged it underwater.
Once underwater, the Aspidorhynchus attempted to swallow the pterosaur, which still had not fully consumed the small fish it had caught earlier. This hunting encounter would end disastrously for everyone involved.
The pterosaur was too large for the Aspidorhynchus to swallow. However, the Aspidorhynchus couldn’t dislodge it because the pterosaur was lodged in its throat. All three creatures sank to the ocean floor, where they were discovered 155 million years later.
7. The Baby Dinosaur That Nearly Became Prey to a Snake
Due to their small size, unprotected dinosaur eggs and hatchlings were constantly at risk of being devoured by smaller, adult animals. In 1984, researchers uncovered a 67-million-year-old fossil of a Sanajeh indicus (an extinct species of snake) that was about to consume a dinosaur hatchling. The find was made in Gujarat, India.
While the exact species of dinosaur remains unidentified, researchers know it belonged to a group of long-necked herbivores called sauropods. They suspect it may have been a titanosaur, but this is not confirmed. Initially, the fossils went unnoticed and were even mislabeled, only to be revisited in 2004 by researchers who took a second look.
The -meter-long (11.5 ft) Sanajeh slithered into the sauropod nest and found three eggs, one of which was in the process of hatching. The hatchling was a 0.5-meter-long (1.6 ft) sauropod, still partially inside its shell.
The Sanajeh positioned itself to finish the hatchling’s brief life when, suddenly, the nest was inundated by mud, resulting in the death and fossilization of the hatchling, snake, and eggs. Researchers speculate the mudflow was triggered by a heavy rainstorm.
6. The Resting Dinosaur
Our understanding of dinosaurs is still incomplete, despite the discovery of hundreds of their fossilized remains. For example, we are unaware of how the mighty T. rex slept. It’s unlikely we will ever know unless we come across a fossil of a sleeping T. rex, which may never occur, as dinosaur fossils are typically found in the death position. Their tails are elevated, and their necks are positioned as if they are trying to peer over their backs.
However, a few years ago, we made an exciting discovery: the fossilized remains of a dinosaur in a sleeping posture. This was revealed by researchers Xing Xu and Mark Norell in 2004. The dinosaur, a member of a two-legged group called troodontids, was found curled up like a resting bird in China. It was named Mei long (“sleeping dragon”) because of this position.
The fossil is more than 140 million years old. Its posture provides evidence that birds and dinosaurs share a common ancestry. It also hints that dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded. Researchers believe the Mei long was likely buried alive after being covered by volcanic sediment or it might have been killed by carbon monoxide poisoning before being engulfed by the sediment.
To confirm that this wasn’t a random occurrence, researchers found another Mei long and a third unnamed dinosaur in the same sleeping position. The unnamed dinosaur wasn’t a Mei long, but it belonged to the same family (troodontids) as the Mei long.
5. The Parent
In 2003, we discovered the remains of 35 plant-eating dinosaurs that had been dead for over 125 million years. These dinosaurs belonged to the Psittacosaurus genus, often referred to as the “parrot lizard.”
A fully grown adult Psittacosaurus stood 1 meter (3 ft) tall, walked on two legs, laid eggs, possessed a parrot-like beak, and consumed fruits. However, in this particular case, we found one adult and 34 juvenile dinosaurs believed to be its offspring. All the fossils were discovered standing upright, suggesting they had died instantaneously.
While the exact cause of death remains uncertain, several theories have been proposed, including the possibility of a flood, a volcanic eruption, or the sudden collapse of their underground habitat.
The discovery indicated that dinosaurs like the Psittacosaurus might have cared for their offspring after birth, a behavior that is uncommon among reptiles but typical of birds. This further supports the theory that dinosaurs are more closely related to birds than to crocodiles.
4. The Mud Dragon That Got Stuck In Mud
As mentioned earlier, many dinosaur fossils are found in the death pose. However, the fossil of a mud dragon discovered in Ganzhou, China, presented an unusual death pose that vividly illustrated its struggle before it perished. The dinosaur’s attempt to escape the mud was evident as it stretched its wings and neck to their limit, but all efforts were in vain. It continued to reach out as life slowly faded away.
The mud dragon was an oviraptorosaur, a two-legged, bird-like dinosaur adorned with feathers, a crest, a beak, and a toothless mouth. Its name, mud dragon—or scientifically, Tongtianlong limosus (“muddy dragon on the road to heaven”)—directly references its death pose. Researchers estimate it died around 66–72 million years ago.
The fossil of the mud dragon is particularly valuable to science because it dates to around the same time as the asteroid impact that wiped out most of the dinosaurs, approximately 66 million years ago. This fossil may offer important clues about the world’s conditions when the asteroid struck Earth.
Interestingly, this fossil was nearly lost before it was discovered by pure chance. Construction workers in Ganzhou were using dynamite for a project when the explosion unintentionally exposed the mud dragon’s remains.
3. The Dinosaur That Was Found Exactly The Way It Looked Millions Of Years Ago
Dinosaur fossils are seldom found in their entirety. Typically, researchers rely on bones, teeth, and occasionally fossilized tissues to confirm the presence of a dinosaur. Even in rare cases when fossils are found with preserved flesh and feathers, they often do not offer a complete likeness of what the dinosaur looked like in life.
Researchers were astonished when they discovered a 110-million-year-old fossil that appeared exactly as the dinosaur did when it roamed the Earth. The fossil, a 5.5-meter-long (18 ft) nodosaur, was uncovered by chance in an Alberta, Canada, mine in 2011.
A nodosaur was like the rhinoceros of the dinosaur world—large, weighing around 1,360 kilograms (3,000 lbs), and herbivorous. Its body was armored with thick, protective skin, protruding scales, and two sharp 51-centimeter-long (20 in) spikes on its shoulders. Most predators kept their distance, just like modern rhinos.
Researchers speculate that the reason this nodosaur fossil remained so well-preserved was due to a series of fortunate events after its death. Likely, a flood carried its bloated carcass into a river, where wind eventually pushed it into the ocean.
Once in the ocean, the nodosaur sank into the depths and was soon covered by mud. The minerals within the mud reacted with the dinosaur’s skin, turning it into a stone-like mass, effectively preserving its form.
2. The Scavenger
In 2008, researchers in Inner Mongolia, China, uncovered the 70-million-year-old teeth and bones of two dinosaurs. The teeth came from either a Velociraptor or a closely related species, while the bones were identified as belonging to a Protoceratops.
The fossil evidence revealed that the smaller carnivorous dinosaur had likely fed on the larger herbivorous Protoceratops. Did the smaller carnivore actively hunt, kill, and consume the larger herbivore? While possible, it is considered unlikely.
To clarify, both dinosaurs were small compared to what we typically imagine when we think of dinosaurs. The “larger” Protoceratops was about the size of a sheep, measuring 1.4–2.0 meters (4.6–6.5 ft) in length, while the Velociraptor was just 1.5 meters (5 ft) long.
Although there is a possibility that the Velociraptor hunted and killed the Protoceratops, it’s more likely that the Velociraptor scavenged the carcass of a dead Protoceratops.
This conclusion was drawn from bite marks observed on the Protoceratops. The Velociraptor seemed to have focused on gnawing pieces of flesh from the jaws and skull of the Protoceratops so vigorously that it lost some of its own teeth in the process.
It’s unusual for a predator to tear meat off the face of its prey, as they typically have ample food to sustain them. This suggests that the Velociraptor likely stumbled upon a dead Protoceratops and simply scavenged what remained of it.
1. The Lovers
The 75-million-year-old Oviraptor fossils discovered in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia have been dubbed “Romeo and Juliet.” These two-legged, birdlike dinosaurs were found lying next to one another. Their name comes from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, as it’s believed they were lovers. Researchers speculated that the male had recently courted the female before they both met an untimely demise.
Researchers identified the male from the female by noting his larger tail bones, which indicated a longer tail. Since Oviraptor was flightless, it is believed that the male used its feathers to court females, much like modern-day peacocks do.
Though the exact cause of their untimely deaths remains unknown, one theory is that the two dinosaurs were trapped when a sand dune collapsed on them, preserving their romantic pose for over 75 million years.
