The «Fighting Dinosaurs» (Velociraptor and Protoceratops)
Los «dinosaurios en combate» (Velociraptor y Protoceratops)
- Date
- 1971 · confidence high
- Place
- Tugrikin Shire, Ömnögovi, Mongolia
- Credited to
- Polish-Mongolian expedition (Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska)
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
A fossil of a Velociraptor attacking a Protoceratops, buried together by a collapsing sand dune about 75 million years ago. It is a rare record of the behaviour of two dinosaurs.
Found in 1971 by the Polish-Mongolian expedition, 48 years after Roy Chapman Andrews's eggs. It is read as a moment of combat, although other readings (scavenging, simultaneous burial) have been proposed.
What it led to
- evidence of predation by Velociraptor, with claws in the herbivore's throat
- a Mongolian national treasure, repatriated and not exportable
- a reassessment of dromaeosaurid behaviour and their sickle claw