Scientists believe that the fossils excavated in Utah mountain hold evidence that these dinosaurs hunted in packs before they accidentally fell into quicksand.
Utah State paleontologist James Kirkland and his colleagues found the fossils of six Utahraptor dinosaurs in one place, suggesting that they died together. The team excavated the site in 2001 after a geology student told them that he found what he thought was a human arm bone in Utah's early Cretaceous rocks.
"We're really going to have a different view of this guy," Kirkland told the National Geographic.
Kirkland presumed that the dinosaurs might have fallen into quicksand. The fossils include a 16-foot-long adult Utahraptor, four juveniles and a baby. They also found another fossil of an Iguanodontia, an herbivore, which might have been the meal of the pack.
The team is still studying the sandstone as it might explain why these dinosaurs died in one place. Initial dating showed that the fossils are 125 million years old.
"We believe it's going to be the first example of dinosaurs trapped in quicksand en masse in the fossil record," Kirkland said.
Other paleontologists are also interested in the progress of this study as it might end a long-standing debate of whether dinosaurs hunted in packs as shown in the "Jurassic Park" movies. Some scientists reject the idea of group hunting, even if some earlier fossils suggest that it occurred. They argued that these dinosaurs might have been fighting each other over a prey, killing one another in the process.
University of Maryland paleontologist Thomas Holtz, Jr., who is not involved in the study, commented that the researchers need to focus on the preservation of the bones.
"If the skeletons show some interweaving, that would be a good clue of pack behavior," Holtz told the National Geographic.
The fossils are currently housed at the Salt Lake City's Department of Natural Resources.
