Cannibal Daspletosaurus?

This is my contribution to Dave Hone‘s new project. He is trying to gather funds for  research into a very well preserved Daspletosaurus skull that once again gives evidence that tyrannosaurs were cannibals or at least had fierce  battles between them. For more information  do visit https://www.microryza.com/projects/cannibalism-in-giant-tyrannosaurs. Very soon, there is going to be available a signed, canvased  limited edition  print of this artwork  to help fund the effort.

As we have seen before, we have come a long way in reconstructing tyrannosaurs and the new feathery coverage gives us a complete new dimension of how these animals may have looked. To show how I normally work my pictures I’m adding the original sketch that served as the basis… The title “cannibalism” also suggests scavenging… but there’s much more information that is being extracted from the remains that challenge any straightforward notion of scavenging.

Instead I wanted to show two adults battling and scarring each other… the battle might lead to the death of one or simply the scarring of each other… there’s also evidence that the some of the wounds would have healed… so the animal survived the bruising!