Interesting head trauma found in a Tarchia specimen

[Faelrin]

Brand new paper here (not paywalled thankfully), from Tatiana Tumanova et al, published on the 4th:

https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.25205



It appears a Tarbosaurus, or something similar had attacked it, but it survived, only to develop a terrible infection afterwards that may have led to its ultimate death. The specimen of note is also the holotype of Tarchia teresae, PIN 3142/250. This was discovered due to the researchers work on getting CT scans of the Mongolian ankylosaurids, to get a better understanding of their internal skull anatomy.

Edit: The paper mentions this was done a few hours away from me in a hospital in Philly. I think it's pretty cool to see something like this had been local to me.

Raptor Chatter did a video covering the material in the paper (which is how I found out about this, and had to come back and share):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j73fGQnb1Fc&t=19s

[andrewsaurus rex]

pretty interesting.  I think the intraspecific combat hypothesis unlikely, but the tyrannosaur bite is plausible, although you'd think that given where the puncture is,  there would be evidence of other tooth marks on the skull in the same general area.  For one tooth to puncture, you'd think other adjacent teeth would have left noticeable marks at the very least.

Has there been much thought given to the possibility that tyrannosaurs, and other theropods, relied on infection to kill their prey?  ie bite, back off and follow the prey until it dies from a host of nasty bacteria introduced into the wound by the tyrannosaur's saliva?  Not strictly speaking poisonous, but the next best thing.

[Lynx]

pretty interesting.  I think the intraspecific combat hypothesis unlikely, but the tyrannosaur bite is plausible, although you'd think that given where the puncture is,  there would be evidence of other tooth marks on the skull in the same general area.  For one tooth to puncture, you'd think other adjacent teeth would have left noticeable marks at the very least.

Has there been much thought given to the possibility that tyrannosaurs, and other theropods, relied on infection to kill their prey?  ie bite, back off and follow the prey until it dies from a host of nasty bacteria introduced into the wound by the tyrannosaur's saliva?  Not strictly speaking poisonous, but the next best thing.

Any wound can get an infection, it's highly unlikely that their saliva would particularly be more deadly than any other predator. AFAIK Jurassic Fight Club brought up that theory

[Bread]

Has there been much thought given to the possibility that tyrannosaurs, and other theropods, relied on infection to kill their prey?  ie bite, back off and follow the prey until it dies from a host of nasty bacteria introduced into the wound by the tyrannosaur's saliva?  Not strictly speaking poisonous, but the next best thing.

Any wound can get an infection, it's highly unlikely that their saliva would particularly be more deadly than any other predator. AFAIK Jurassic Fight Club brought up that theory

Yes @Lynx, I too think you are correct that JFC came up with that idea. I believe they compared it to the Komodo Dragon, which was then discovered that they do have a venomous gland in their lower jaw, so it really wasn't so much that the animal would die from bacteria more so that due to the Komodo Dragon's bite, the blood would not clot, making the animal bleed out to death.

Correct me if I am wrong, but bacterial infection by saliva has been disproven since JFC spread its misinformation. Of course, an animal can die due to infection/bacteria; however, the use of saliva holding tremendous amounts of bacteria lethal enough to kill a substantially large or bulky herbivore does not seem to be the truth. Plus, we have healed wounds from numerous prehistoric fauna, in which they did not die due to infection from "saliva filled with bacteria."

It's interesting to think about given, but more likely be the case that the therapod follows their prey due to tremendous blood loss and injury. Otherwise, attempts happen but not always do they come with success.

[Halichoeres]

If the Tarchia could talk, it might say, "You should see the other guy!"

[Carnoking]

Just gave this a read, and although both suggestions as to the cause of the trauma are for the moment speculative, it still makes for some interesting food for thought.
The possibility of the injury being caused by bovine style headbutting adds fuel to the recent ideas of intraspecific combat in ankylosaurids while the idea that it could have been caused by a Tarbosaurus bite is yet another example of active predation in large Tyrannosaurs. Both very cool possibilities!