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By Nicholas Carter DHT Dino News & Views
Fossilized dinosaur footprints can tell us a lot about the lives of the animals that left them. Speed, posture, social behavior, signs of injury, and the anatomy of the foot’s soft tissue can all be deduced from fossilized tracks.
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Several different types of dinosaur tracks are known from Alberta’s Peace region, including footprints left by small birdlike predators, ‘duck-billed’ hadrosaurs, and even tyrannosaurids. Eight well-preserved tyrannosaurid tracks in particular are the subject of a new publication led by grad student Nathan Enriquez from the University of New England in Armidale, Australia. The international team of coauthors, which form the Boreal Alberta Dinosaur Project, also includes Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum head curator Dr. Corwin Sullivan.
Researchers created 3D scans of two tiny 1 inch dinosaur bones from Canada
One was a jaw bone and the other a claw bone - both from embryo tyrannosaurs
The team determined that when hatched a tyrannosaur would be about 3ft long
It would also have a typical tyrannosaur protruding jawline when it first hatched
This small size was surprising given the beast reaches up to 40ft as an adult