Science Daily has a story about the feeding habits of tyrannosaurs. The diet of tyrannosaurs has been long and sometimes controversial, remember when it was proposed that T-rex was a scavenger? Well a new paper in the journal Evolving Earth, found evidence of cannibalism from marks on a massive tyrannosaur foot bone. Interestingly, the marks were very small and suggest scavenging by a smaller individual.

The research was led by Josephine Nielsen, a Master’s student in geoscience. She used advanced 3D scanning techniques to examine a fossilized metatarsal (foot bone) that belonged to a large tyrannosaur more than 75 million years ago. Her analysis uncovered 16 distinct bite marks on the bone.

“I have analyzed the depth, angle, and placement of the marks in a virtual 3D environment and can document that these bite marks did not occur by chance. They are precise impressions from the teeth of a smaller tyrannosaur that fed on a much larger relative,” says Josephine Nielsen.

The results suggest that tyrannosaurs did not let resources go to waste. Even tough bones with little meat were consumed late in the decay process, after most of the soft tissue had already been eaten.