Dinosaur Used Sharp Claw in Combat

Feisty, raptor dinosaurs didn't just use their sharp claws for show -- a new fossil suggests they may have brandished their butcher's hook-like talons as weapons.

A newly found feathered dinosaur, named Talos sampsoni, is related to the iconic velociraptor of Jurassic Park fame.

The fossil shows the dinosaur's foot was damaged, and researchers think they know why.

"This raptor dinosaur specimen is special because it shows evidence of having broken the toe on the foot that bears an enlarged talon, an injury we are interpreting as sustained during combat with other members of the species or in hunting prey," Lindsay Zanno, lead author of a study published in PLoS ONE, told Discovery News.

Zanno is an assistant professor of anatomy at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside, and a research associate at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History.

The purpose of this recurved claw has been a mystery. At least one function is now evident: The dinosaurs likely used the talon to kick the you-know-what out of others.

The new dinosaur was named in honor of paleontologist Scott Sampson and the mythical Greek figure Talos, a bronze giant who had wings and threw stones. It's unclear if this scrappy new dinosaur threw stones as well, but the researchers do know that it was feathered and bird-like.

The dinosaur represents the first definitive troodontid theropod ("beast-footed") to be named from the Late Cretaceous of North America in more than 75 years.

Western North America at that time was part of the "lost continent" of Laramidia. It was home to numerous dinosaurs, particularly during the Late Cretaceous, 99.6 to 66.5 million years ago.

Troodontids like T. sampsoni probably were omnivores, eating whatever they could find in sight. Specimens from other species suggest these theropods laid beautifully colored eggs and slept with their heads tucked underneath their "wings," as birds still do today.

Read more at Discovery News