Based on what the Tyrannosaurus Rex must have looked like when it roamed the Earth, a pack of them was more than likely a terrifying site and new research suggests that is how the massive predator hunted.
According to the Guardian, the T-Rex's hunting habits (whether they did it solo or not) has long been up for speculation. Based on findings from a site in northeast British Columbia, Canadian researchers suggest the dinosaurs lived and hunted for prey in groups.
The new study is published in the journal PLOS One.
The team of scientists was surprised to find sets of tracks that indicated several different T-Rexes traveled together, though they gave each other sufficient elbow room. Study lead author Richard McCrea, of the Peace Region Paleontology Research Center in British Columbia, said a hunting guide informed him of the tracks in Oct. 2011 and that it appeared as if there were multiple sets.
"We hit the jackpot," McCrea told the Guardian. "A single footprint is interesting, but a trackway gives you way more. This is about the strongest evidence you can get that these were gregarious animals. The only stronger evidence I can think of is going back in a time machine to watch them."
The footprints in British Columbia were so well preserved the scientists could make out the Tyrannosaurs' skin lines. The size and depth indicated the dinosaurs were aged in their 20s or 30s and were not created at different times. The research team dated the group of prints at 70 million years old.
"You start wondering what it would have been like to have been there when the tracks were made. The word is terror. I wouldn't want to meet them in a dark alley at night," McCrea said. "When you find three track ways together, going in same direction, it's not necessarily good evidence for gregarious behavior.
"They could be walking along a shore. But if all the other animals are moving in different directions, it means there is no geographical constraint, and it strengthens the case."
