INDEPENDENT.CO.UK

Fossil footprints discovered in Canada show that different dinosaur species sometimes herded together, shedding more light on social interaction among the prehistoric beasts.

The footprints at the Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada, is the first discovery of its kind.

An analysis of the fossil site, detailed in the journal PLOS One, provides the first piece of concrete evidence of mixed species herding behaviour among dinosaurs, similar to how modern wildebeest and zebra travel together on the African plains.

Researchers, including from the University of Reading in the UK, say they were surprised to find fossil tracks of a pair of tyrannosaurs walking side by side and perpendicular to the multi-species herd.

Such multispecies herding could have been a defence strategy against common apex predators like T rexes, the researchers said.

The researchers found 13 horned dinosaur tracks from at least five animals walking side by side on the 30 square metres of the fossil site unearthed so far. They also noticed tracks indicating that an armoured dinosaur like the ankylosaurus walked in the midst of the herd.