Dinosaur Cannibalism 🦖 | Planet Dinosaur |

A few years ago, a paper published in the distinguished scientific journal Nature bore an arresting title: "Cannibalism in the Madagascan Dinosaur Majungatholus atopus." In it, researchers described their discovery of various Majungatholus bones bearing Majungatholus-sized bite marks, the only logical explanation being that this 20-foot-long, one-ton theropod preyed on other members of the same species, either for fun or because it was especially hungry. (Since then, Majungatholus has had its name changed to the slightly less impressive Majungasaurus, but it was still the apex predator of late Cretaceous Madagascar.)
As you might have expected, the media went wild. It's hard to resist a press release with the words "dinosaur" and "cannibal" in the title, and Majungasaurus was soon vilified worldwide as a heartless, amoral predator of friends, family, children, and random strangers. It was only a matter of time before The History Channel featured a pair of Majungasaurus in an episode of its long-extinct series Jurassic Fight Club, where the ominous music and portentous narration made the offending dinosaur seem like the Mesozoic equivalent of Hannibal Lecter ("I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti!")
Notably, Majungasaurus, aka Majungatholus, is one of the few dinosaurs for which we have indisputable evidence of cannibalism. The only other genus that even comes close is Coelophysis, an early theropod that congregated by the thousands in the southwestern U.S. It was once believed that some adult Coelophysis fossils contained the partially digested remains of juveniles, but it now appears that these were actually small, prehistoric, yet uncannily dinosaur-like crocodiles like Hesperosuchus. So Coelophysis (for now) has been cleared of all charges, while Majungasaurus has been pronounced guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.