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Dinosaur's attacking style deciphered
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A MEAT-EATING dinosaur from the Jurassic era used a fierce headbutting attack to slash and tear at its prey, according to a computer model drawn up by an international team of scientists, Thursday's edition of Nature magazine reports.
The Allosaurus fragilis, a smaller cousin of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex, used its head like a hatchet, smashing into its prey before tearing it apart, says the team led by Emily Rayfield, of Cambridge University, England.
Rayfield and fellow Cambridge scientists Paula May Smith and Paul Upchurch, teamed up with scientists from the United States and Canada to conduct the study.
The researchers used computerised tomography -- an x-ray technique that builds up three-dimensional pictures from fossils -- to develop an idea of how the dinosaur's skull would have worked.
To complete their analysis of the beast, the team used finite element analysis (FEA) -- a technique that industrial designers and biomechanists use to measure the performance of anything from bridges to human bodies.
The Allosaurus was the chief predator on the north American continent between 134 and 154 million years ago. But the scientists' analysis showed that although its skull was extremely tough, its bite was relatively weak.
It was nothing like as powerful as that of the Tyrannosaurus rex, a predator that belongs to the later Cretacean era.
So while the Tyrannosaurus used its crushing bite to tackle all comers, the Allosaurus used lightning-quick frontal attacks to overcome its prey.
Its sharp, curved teeth and power neck muscles would combine to tear away at the flesh of its victim, the effect like that of a person wielding a large, heavy hatchet, the scientists explained.
"Allosaurus might have ambushed larger, more dangerous, prey ... by inflicting a sudden devastating high-impact attack bite before the defender could retaliate," wrote the scientists.
This technique is much like that used by the Komodo dragons of the Indonesian archipelago, which at as much as three meters are the largest lizards surviving to the present day.
Komodo dragons throw themselves on their prey and if they do not manage to kill their victim with the first blow, they inflict deep slashing wounds which are quickly infected with the bacteria it carries in its mouth. The animal quickly weakens and succumbs.(SD-Agencies)
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