Research shows that five three-horned dinosaurs lived and died together
In the summer of 2013, the team at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Holland, Wyoming searched for a Tyrannosaurus. Instead, they found a Triceratops: the famous dinosaur with three horns and a large protective plate around its neck. And then they found another one. And one more. And more. The excavation became a project that would last more than ten years.
In total, they unearthed 1,200 bones and bone fragments from at least five people. A team of professional and volunteer paleontologists and technicians spent years recovering them from the quarry. A researcher was hired to examine the fossils: How did these dead dinosaurs get together there? What do his bones tell us about his life and death? This researcher has now reached a milestone: on Wednesday, March 27, paleontologist Jimmy de Rooij hopes to receive his doctorate from Utrecht University.
“The material is of very good quality,” says De Rooij about the dinosaur crime novel, which is his doctoral thesis. “This allowed us to show, for example, that these Triceratops grew very slowly.” Details of the bone bed suggest that all five dinosaurs died together, possibly submerged in a swamp. They occur in a thin layer of rock, without the bones of other species.
Examination of the physical and chemical properties of the hundreds of Triceratops teeth suggests a migratory existence that was common to all five dinosaurs. In other words, this species of dinosaur at least occasionally formed a team. “And of course that leads to all sorts of new questions,” says De Rooij: “How complex was this social behavior exactly?”
De Rooij’s supervisor, Professor Anne Schulp (Naturalis/Utrecht University), is very satisfied with the entire journey from the excavation to the defense ceremony. “Naturalis, the national natural history museum of the Netherlands, now has the largest Triceratops find in the world, and Utrecht University has the first Ph.D. Triceratops in the Netherlands.”
De Rooij’s work has led not only to research articles, but also to an exhibition about his findings. The exhibition will open in October at Naturalis – the start of the world tour – where the five Triceratops will be shown as they lived and died 67 million years ago: together.
REFERENCE
Bringing fossils back to life: New insights into the biology of the legendary dinosaur Triceratops
Source: Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Utrecht University