SCIENTISTS investigating a Triceratops grave have made a tragic discovery.
You may recognize the spikey creatures from the Jurrasic Park movies.
It’s now thought they lived in a similar fashion to how they’re portrayed in the film.
In the movie, the dinosaurs are shown living in herds but this wasn’t confirmed as factual until now.
Researchers from the Netherlands discovered the Triceratops grave in Wyoming in 2013.
They initially thought they had discovered just one dinosaur but as they kept digging they ended up finding five.
New research at the grave suggested the dinosaurs were living in a group and died huddled together.
Experts are now questioning just how sociable the dinosaurs really were.
A team from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands found the grave while looking for a Tyrannosaurus.
Instead, they ended up finding the mysterious Triceratops grave which took over ten years to investigate.
A total of 1200 bones and bone fragments have now been excavated and removed from the area.
It was a long and meticulous process to remove them from the quarry they were found in.
Paleontologist Jimmy de Rooij was hired to study the bones.
The expert said the find “leads to all kinds of new questions.”
Questions including how close the Triceratops group was and how they lived.
“How complex was this social behavior, exactly?” de Rooij said.
The expert hopes to receive the title of PhD from Utrecht University for his research.
Why did the dinosaurs die out?
Here’s what you need to know…
- The dinosaur wipe-out was a sudden mass extinction event on Earth
- It wiped out roughly three-quarters of our planet’s plant and animal species around 66million years ago
- This event marked the end of the Cretaceous period, and opened the Cenozoic Era, which we’re still in today
- Scientists generally believe that a massive comet or asteroid around 9 miles wide crashed into Earth, devastating the planet
- This impact is said to have sparked a lingering “impact winter”, severely harming plant life and the food chain that relied on it
- More recent research suggests that this impact “ignited” major volcanic activity, which also led to the wiping-out of life
- Some research has suggested that dinosaur numbers were already declining due to climate changes at the time
- But a study published in March 2019 claims that dinosaurs were likely “thriving” before the extinction event
Dr. Thomas Hughes is a UK-based scientist and science communicator who makes complex topics accessible to readers. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
