Last year, a nine ton heavy block of sandstone was taken from a mountain of Utah. Surprisingly, the block holds the largest fossil of a predatory dinosaur known as Utahraptor.
The fossil which is nearly three feet thick contains remains of six Utahraptor dinosaurs. One of them is 16-foot long adult, whereas other four are young and one is baby dinosaur.
James Kirkland, a Utah State Paleontologist says that the newly found fossils confirm that Young Utahraptors were similar to turkey in terms of size. However, the adult Utahraptors were relatively heavier than the young ones.
When the scientists discovered the fossils, it was fully covered with feathers. It contains a huge sickle claw on every second toe.
Earlier, scientists used to argue about the hunting method of this group of dinosaur. It seems like the recently discovered fossil is the answer of these questions.
The researchers of National Geographic states that the group death of these dinosaurs indicates that they used to hunt in groups. Currently, the researchers are carefully analyzing two possibilities. First, they might have died together during group hunting. Secondly, they died at different occasions and dumped at same place.
It was not an easy task for Utah’s paleontologists to dig the fossils which were nearly a decade old.