Majungatholus Atopus: A Dinosaur Cannibal

Majungatholus Atopus: A Dinosaur Cannibal

The dinosaur Majungatholus atopus is a meat-eating dinosaur that lived 65 to 70 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, in what is now the island of Madagascar. The Majungatholus has long been known for being a carnivorous dinosaur, but it wasn’t until recently that researchers revealed that this dinosaur was probably a cannibal. They were able to conclude that this was probably the case as a result of discovering several bones of the Majungatholus dinosaur with specific tooth marks in them that researchers have proven belonged to the Majungatholus dinosaur. In her 2003 press release for the National Science Foundation (NSF), Cheryl Dybas quoted the NSF program director Richard Lane, “this research greatly expands our understanding of how dinosaur species related to each other in the context of their environment, and also serves as a way of increasing public awareness of and appreciation for the earth sciences."1[1]

There was one other discovery of what might have been another cannibal dinosaur; the Coelophysis bauri, a small Triassic theropod2[2], this discovery however has not yet been proven and may be unconfirmed. The discovery of the Majungatholus however has what geologist Raymond Rogers calls the “smoking gun in the form of diagnostic tooth marks,” which are “a ‘snapshot’ of a day in the life-- and death—of Majungatholus.”3[3] There is however no evidence to point to whether or not Majungatholus killed its meals or simply scavenged.

Rogers says the evidence for the theory of cannibalism comes from twenty-one tooth marked elements which were a part of two different Majungatholus individuals found in two isolated locations on the island of Madagascar.4[4] On these bones are distinct sets of tooth marks that point only to being from the jaws of a Majungatholus dinosaur; the marks not only match the size and spacing of the teeth found in the jaws of the Majungatholus, but they also have the same smaller grooves that match the sharp irregularities of this particular dinosaur. According to Rogers, “measurements taken from the modified bones and the Majungatholus teeth are comparable.”5[5] The set of parallel tooth marks found on one of the bones matched up with the same approximate inter-tooth spacing as the jaw of the Majungatholus. This particular dinosaur also can display an even pattern of tooth eruption that is evident in several of the bones in the sample.