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TV, Documentary, Jurassic Fight Club S01 E02 The T-Rex Hunter
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00:03T-Rex, king of dinosaurs. Its fossilized secrets have now been scientifically decoded.
00:13It had eagle eye vision, could smell prey from three miles away, and his bite was a biological weapon.
00:24Yet new evidence reveals the T-Rex was another creature's prey.
00:33What hunted the ultimate hunter? This is Jurassic Fight Club.
00:46Go back. Way back. 65 million years ago. To a time when the Earth was wild, raw, and mysterious. A
00:57place of violent upheaval and extreme change.
01:02The supercontinents of Laurasia and Gondwanda land fracture, forming the lands that man will inhabit millions of years into the
01:10future.
01:12In what will become North America, an ocean splits the land mass. Great shifts in the Earth's tectonic plates cause
01:20the rocky mountains to form in the west and the Appalachians to rise in the east.
01:25Volcanoes erupt with increased frequency. The world is in turmoil.
01:32Where South Dakota is today, volcanic ash carpets the terrain. It's the dry season. The temperature nears 100 degrees.
01:42A high oxygen level allows dinosaurs, the dominant life form, to grow to immense sizes.
01:48Among these giants is the largest predator on Earth, Tyrannosaurus Rex.
01:55And he's about to engage in a colossal fight.
02:01To the death.
02:06Summer, 1998. In the harsh badlands of northwestern South Dakota, a group of amateur paleontologists are conducting a routine dig
02:16when they make a stunning discovery.
02:19They had stumbled upon a prehistoric crime scene.
02:29They were immediately able to determine that the remains belonged to a young T-Rex.
02:36But this was not just an ordinary skeleton.
02:40Many of the bones had been broken and surrounding the skeleton were strange blade-like teeth.
02:47But these teeth were not the teeth of the baby T-Rex.
02:51They were the teeth of another unidentified predator.
02:57How had this T-Rex died?
03:02In 1998, near the town of Belfouche, South Dakota, they found what appeared to be the skeletal remains of a
03:08relatively small dinosaur.
03:10At first, they weren't sure what they had, but the evidence started to emerge that told them this was a
03:15young Tyrannosaurus Rex.
03:17T-Rex is a pretty rare dinosaur, but juveniles are almost unheard of.
03:21So its discovery was pretty significant.
03:24But as workers continued to excavate the remains, they observed something unusual.
03:31Ribs, leg, and arm bones, and various vertebras showed signs of injury.
03:38The sheer number of broken bones was stunning.
03:42Something had happened here.
03:48Had another predator killed this T-Rex?
03:55The bones indicated a brutal battle scenario.
03:59Were paleontologists looking at a battlefield?
04:04Tyrannosaurus Rex was the apex predator of its time.
04:08So what animal could have taken on and killed this young T-Rex?
04:20In the late Cretaceous, T-Rex stood out among all other dinosaurs as one of the deadliest on Earth.
04:27They weighed up to seven tons, stood 16 feet tall, and measured 43 feet in length, the size of an
04:3618-wheeler.
04:38Its large size made T-Rex look impressive, but modern detective work revealed three unique features that made him a
04:47true killing machine.
04:48The first was his eyesight.
04:54In 2006, Lawrence Whitmer of Ohio University scanned the brain cavity of Tyrannosaurus Rex.
05:02It's an important piece of the puzzle.
05:05We now know that T-Rex had powerful binocular vision.
05:11From the CAT scan information, we can get a sense of the relative size of particular parts of the brain.
05:17The part of the brain associated with vision, the optic lobes, the part of the brain associated with the sense
05:22of smell, or the part of the brain associated with hearing.
05:28Like an eagle, Tyrannosaurus Rex had binocular vision.
05:32This gave it the ability to maintain focus on a moving target.
05:38In a fight, it had no trouble keeping its opponent within its line of sight.
05:45T-Rex almost certainly had a pretty good visual field overlap, meaning it had pretty extensive binocular vision.
05:53What we see in the brain is that, indeed, the brain is structured to, in a sense, process that visual
06:00information.
06:02Its second feature was its tremendously powerful jaws.
06:06With a bite force of over 3,000 pounds per square inch, it's among the strongest in the animal kingdom.
06:13Twice the strength of a great white shark.
06:17What controlled the teeth and the damage those teeth inflicted were the jaw muscles.
06:23And T-Rex just has expanded the back of the skull so that it has a lot of musculature, so
06:29that it has the power to actually drive those teeth right through both.
06:33It has this unbelievable power in its jaws, separated from all other dinosaurs and all other living animals as well.
06:41Its third and most dangerous asset was its incredibly massive teeth.
06:47No other creature, before or after, has ever had spikes designed like these.
06:53T-Rex had to use those teeth to crunch right through bone.
06:57And so it couldn't have narrow teeth the way the other carnivorous dinosaurs did.
07:02It had to make teeth that were really, really wide.
07:05And it would have been incredibly damaging to anything that had bit.
07:10These are pulverizing teeth.
07:12These could pierce through flesh.
07:14They could shatter bone.
07:15And they're anchored by extremely deep roots.
07:18They're unlike any other predatory dinosaur's tooth.
07:21Look at the tooth of any predatory dinosaur.
07:25Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, even raptors.
07:27You'll find that their teeth are more blade-like and are serrated on front and back.
07:32Very common.
07:33But look at the tooth of a Tyrannosaurus rex, and now you're looking at a railroad spike.
07:40But those teeth may have held something more than just a massive bite.
07:44We now know that they may have been some of the world's first biological weapons.
07:50When Whitmer studied the skull, he saw that there were serrated ridges in the teeth.
07:56The ridges are remarkably similar to those of another animal with a deadly bite.
08:01A Komodo dragon.
08:04Another interesting attribute about the teeth of Tyrannosaurus rex is that the serrations on the teeth, the fine little ridges,
08:12perhaps actually lodge little bits of flesh from a previous meal, and that rotting of that flesh would have produced
08:18a great deal of bacteria.
08:20What we're talking about here is really bad oral hygiene.
08:24Now, today we actually have animals, the Komodo dragon, this large, gigantic blizzard that actually has what we call a
08:32septic bite.
08:33That actually, when it bites an animal, it in a sense infects it with the bacteria in its mouth.
08:40Equipped with these weapons, it seems unlikely that any creature would attack a Tyrannosaurus rex, even one as small as
08:48a juvenile.
08:49So who had battled this T-Rex?
08:52To help answer this question, paleontologists had to get a complete picture of how T-Rex lived and fought.
09:01Step one, study its environment.
09:06When we look at the Cretaceous environments of this part of the world, it's not all that different than environments
09:12that we still have today.
09:13When we look at the plants, when we look at the climate and so on, we could assume that we
09:18were looking at something that looks very similar to what we see in the Gulf states, climate-wise and everything
09:25else-wise.
09:27Fossilized plants found near the skeleton reveal that the young T-Rex lived in an area near conifer, pine and
09:34magnolia trees.
09:36They also discovered prehistoric ash, which suggests that volcanic activity occurred on a regular basis.
09:46But in the investigation, scientists discovered something stunning.
09:51Bones of prehistoric crocodiles and fish were found nearby.
09:57This suggests that the T-Rex's body had been washed into a river during flooding.
10:04It's evidence of a violent Earth that could change without warning.
10:14After studying its environment, step two of the investigation was to study the behavior of Tyrannosaurus rex.
10:23Using evidence found in the bones and modern animal behavior, scientists pieced together how these huge dinosaurs hunted, fought and
10:33raised their young.
10:36Tyrannosaurus rex was the ultimate aggressor.
10:40There's nothing that Tyrannosaurus rex was afraid of, including its biggest prey item, Triceratops, which had these big formidable horns
10:48and frill to protect its neck.
10:49But there were no other dinosaurs around that would even give Tyrannosaurus rex a second thought about its own safety.
10:57There's no problem whatsoever. I can take you down.
11:00And when T-Rex took its prey down, it was fast and ugly.
11:06This is an animal that could probably bite and chew up a Volkswagen.
11:12So anything that got in the way of that mouth was in a lot of trouble.
11:16What they really do is get those teeth implanted and then they rear back and just pull everything out.
11:23Bones and flesh and guts and whatever happens to be there.
11:27And they crunch it up and swallow it home.
11:30If you get in the way of this apparatus, you're not going to last very long.
11:36Although Tyrannosaurus rex was a powerful and deadly predator,
11:40paleontologists now believe that they lived and moved in packs.
11:45Over the last decades, three dig sites have suggested that large predators lived in family groups for packs.
11:51In Alberta, Canada, they found several skeletons of varying sizes from a big meat-eater called Albertosaurus.
11:58In Utah, they found dozens of Allosaurus that had died at the same time in the same place.
12:04But the best evidence to support the idea that T-Rex lived in a family group was made in Montana.
12:11Paleontologists discovered the remains of several individual skeletons that suggested that this was a family of Tyrannosaurus rexes.
12:20Experts believe that living in a family pack would have ensured the safety of their young.
12:25Born very small, it took them nearly a decade before they were big enough to fend for themselves.
12:33When T-Rex was born, it was small enough to fit in an egg about the size of a soccer
12:37ball.
12:38And then it spent the next ten years or so relatively small, less than half a ton.
12:45Based on the T-Rex traveling in packs, the investigation took a turn.
12:50Experts had to consider the theory.
12:53Is it possible that this juvenile T-Rex was with a sibling at the time of the attack?
12:59The experts say it is.
13:03Based on modern birds, I think the T-Rex had two, maybe three offspring at a time.
13:07I think the only time they were ever left alone is when the parents were out hunting.
13:12Once the babies grew large enough, they could go on the hunt with them.
13:15But until they reached that size, they were left behind, and this made them pretty vulnerable.
13:23Like modern predators, the adults would scent mark their territory.
13:28These scents were designed to keep predators and other dinosaurs away.
13:34We also know that the only thing a T-Rex would fear was a larger T-Rex.
13:39Is it possible that this juvenile was killed by a member of its own family?
13:45The tooth design of Tyrannosaurus Rex is very distinctive, and therefore leaves very distinctive marks on the bones.
13:52Had this juvenile been attacked and killed by another Rex, then we would have no doubt,
13:57because there would have been little of the skeleton remaining,
13:59but more importantly, they would have had these huge, round holes punched to the bones.
14:03In my opinion, a T-Rex did not kill this baby.
14:08The powerful jaws and teeth of Tyrannosaurus Rex were capable of cracking any bone.
14:15But the lack of bite marks in the juvenile skeleton meant only one thing.
14:22Another Tyrannosaurus was not responsible for this attack.
14:29But these dinosaurs had few, if any, rivals.
14:33And with two protective parrots in the family, few creatures would dare to attack their young.
14:42Protected or not, something killed this young Tyrannosaur.
14:46New evidence would blow this prehistoric mystery wide open and expose the identity of the killer.
14:56Buried deep in the ground for millions of years, a scenario of a lethal dinosaur attack begins to unfold in
15:04South Dakota.
15:06The discovery of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex, with numerous broken and missing bones.
15:15Investigators worked off the theory that two T-Rexes were in this battle.
15:20The volatile climate in the South Dakota Badlands demanded that the bones of the juvenile T-Rex be removed and
15:27shipped to a lab.
15:29Workers covered the bones with layers of plaster to ensure their protection during transport.
15:36We have to worry about changes in the weather, for example.
15:39So we have to get the specimens out of the ground as fast as possible and back into the laboratory.
15:44We'll cover the top with plaster and burlap.
15:47And basically that's just a jacket or some kind of a container to hold everything together.
15:55When they opened one of the plaster jackets, experts were given their first close-up look at a vital clue
16:02from the crime scene.
16:06The attacker's teeth.
16:12Closer inspection led to the identity of the suspect.
16:18Nanotyrannus, a smaller, stealthier version of Tyrannosaurus Rex.
16:24Nanotyrannus is one of my very favorite dinosaurs.
16:27The name actually means pygmy tyrant.
16:30And it's pretty aptly named because this was a one mean dinosaur.
16:35Nanotyrannus-sized Tyrannosaur would, in my opinion, be one of the most fearsome creatures that ever lived.
16:41Because it combines the firepower of T-Rex on a smaller scale with a great speed ability.
16:52Nanotyrannus wasn't just one mean dinosaur.
16:56It's also one of the most controversial.
16:58It was originally named for a prehistoric skull found in Montana in 1942.
17:04Since then, experts have differed over whether Nanotyrannus is its own species or probably just a juvenile T-Rex.
17:15One of the very difficult things in all of dinosaur paleontology, just because the animals are so rare, is to
17:21be able to understand this thing.
17:23I mean, is this a new species or is this just a juvenile of a species we already have?
17:28Those who believe Nanotyrannus is its own species cite key differences between it and T-Rex.
17:36One is tooth design.
17:39Well, one of the remarkable differences between Nanotyrannus and a full-blown adult T-Rex is the structure of the
17:46teeth.
17:48Tyrannosaurus rex has these large, we sometimes call them banana teeth, in that they're certainly sharp and pointy and have
17:54serrated edges, but they're not really thin like the blade of a knife.
17:58Rather, they're more expanded like a banana.
18:01Whereas in Nanotyr, what we see are teeth that are indeed much more knife-like.
18:06They're much flatter, a little bit more sharply turned back or recurved.
18:11The kinds of teeth we see in other kinds of predatory dinosaurs.
18:16This suggests that while a T-Rex would crush bone, Nanotyrannus would tear through flesh in a slicing action.
18:24There's up to 17 teeth in this part of the upper jaw in Nanotyrannus, and there's only 12 or 13
18:31in Tyrannosaurus rex.
18:33Well, that suggests to me that these are different species of animals, and that these species are in fact valid.
18:41But other paleontologists conclude something different.
18:49Almost all the evidence, I think, points to it being a juvenile, and almost certainly a juvenile T-Rex.
18:55However, there is some evidence in terms of CAT scans on the inside of the skull, and some of the
19:01hollow chambers in that brain case, that are a little peculiar in Nanotyrannus.
19:05And that's another key difference between these two predators, the shape of their brains.
19:13CAT scans performed by Dr. Whitmer gave some surprising results.
19:18So, when we did the CAT scan of T-Rex and Nanotyrannus, it really looked like there were some striking
19:24differences.
19:25I mean, we can see some of those differences in the brain here. Here's Tyrannosaurus rex.
19:29And when we bring up and look at the brain of Nanotyrannus, we really see they're quite different.
19:34Of course, they're different in size. Nanotyrannus was a smaller animal.
19:37But really, some of the differences go beyond size.
19:40The size and shape of the brain was not the only difference.
19:45Experts would discover that the brain was actually positioned differently as well.
19:51The brain of Nanotyrannus is shaped in a very different way from Tyrannosaurus rex.
19:58T-Rex held its skull kind of like this, pretty straight on, where Nanotyrannus actually looked like this.
20:04And you cannot change, because that is buried deeply in bone, you're not going to change the orientation of those
20:10semicircular canals of the inner ear.
20:12So, clearly, this was a different animal.
20:15This discovery proved that Nanotyrannus held its skull in a lowered position, making it easier to focus and strike at
20:23potential enemies.
20:26The evidence clearly suggests that Nanotyrannus is its own species, because there's enough distinctive differences between it and Tyrannosaurus rex
20:36to justify its name, Nanotyrannus.
20:43Today, Nanotyrannus is considered its own species.
20:49A stealthy, aggressive predator, who could hunt down and kill juvenile T-Rexes.
20:56It stood seven and a half feet tall, seventeen feet long, and weighed about a ton, approximately half the overall
21:04size, and up to a sixth the weight of a T-Rex.
21:10But what Nanotyrannus lacked in stature, it gained in speed.
21:15Nanotyrannus has much longer, more slender legs than Tyrannosaurus rex.
21:20That means this is an active, running dinosaur.
21:23Even though Tyrannosaurus rex can run, he's not really designed to run all the time.
21:28Nanotyrannus is more like a cheetah on steroids.
21:31These animals were really, really fast.
21:34They could outrun a Tyrannosaurus rex, no problem.
21:37And that also helped them when they're running down prey, of course, and so they could surround something and run
21:43it to death, basically.
21:46Nanotyrannus was large enough to take on this juvenile T-Rex, and certainly able to outrun its parents.
21:52But the bones had been broken.
21:55No bite marks were found on them.
21:58Did this mean that the Nanotyrannus had actually killed the juvenile T-Rex?
22:05As a smaller animal, Nanotyrannus would not have the same kind of bite force that a big Tyrannosaur would have.
22:12Its jaws were relatively longer and more elongated, and it had more teeth, and that suggests that it really never
22:20did develop the same kind of power that a Tyrannosaurus did, pound for pound.
22:26Nanotyrannus would be a little more careful where it bit, because it wouldn't have this great bone-crushing quality that
22:33a full-sized rex would have.
22:36That is why no bite marks were found on the bones of the juvenile T-Rex.
22:42Nanotyrannus did not have the jaw muscles or tooth design for penetrating bone.
22:47Then, another hard look at the evidence would bring investigators closer to the answer.
22:54When I saw the Nanotyrannus teeth that were found next to the juvenile skeleton, I had a pretty good idea
22:59of what had happened.
23:00But since no bite marks were found on the bones, it was hard to say with any real certainty that
23:06the Nanotyrannus had actually killed the baby.
23:08But then I took a second look at the teeth, and I realized that these were shed teeth.
23:13That means these were teeth that were broken off during the act of feeding.
23:18This means that Nanotyrannus had broken his teeth while attacking this baby Tyrannosaurus rex.
23:26The teeth that were found near the T-Rex had been shed, but were the teeth broken during a battle?
23:32Or could the Nanotyrannus have simply found the dead T-Rex and lost them scavenging his remains?
23:39The prehistoric crime scene held the answers.
23:43It's estimated that between 75 and maybe 90% of the baby Tyrannosaurus rex was found.
23:50If the Nanotyrannus had been scavenging it for food, then we would expect that the majority of the bones would
23:55have been gone,
23:56or at least the skeleton would have been torn up and disarticulated.
23:59But the fact that so much of the skeleton remained, and that the pieces were found in relative proximity to
24:05each other,
24:05tells me that Nanotyrannus was biting the baby T-Rex, but not eating it.
24:14So one question remained.
24:17Why would a Nanotyrannus risk its life to attack a juvenile T-Rex, but not eat it?
24:27Competition between predators has existed from the beginning of time.
24:30Being able to outcompete your opponent is a way to ensure your survival.
24:34Being faster, smarter, or stronger gives you a competitive edge, but in the case of Nanotyrannus,
24:40he could never compete with an adult Tyrannosaurus rex.
24:43It has no chance of killing an adult, so killing a baby is what it needed to do to survive.
24:49But why it didn't eat it remains a mystery.
24:53Perhaps it was buried very quickly after death, and the Nano just didn't have time to eat it.
24:57Or maybe something interrupted him before he could take advantage of that potential meal.
25:05The rotting corpse of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex laid buried beneath mud carried in from some prehistoric river.
25:15T-Rex.
25:16Investigators were working off the theory that two T-Rexes were in a battle.
25:21One was taken down by a Nanotyrannus.
25:28Evidence of the battle and its attacker remained hidden for 65 million years.
25:34This prehistoric crime scene will bring to life an epic battle between T-Rex and the T-Rex hunter.
25:48Tyrannosaurus rex was the most feared dinosaur in North America.
25:53Only one creature would dare enter its domain.
25:58Nanotyrannus.
26:01The battle lines are drawn in this life and death struggle as Nanotyrannus tracks down and attempts to kill a
26:09juvenile T-Rex.
26:11With an acute knowledge of Nanotyrannus and Tyrannosaurus rex, experts began to piece together how this dinosaur battle may have
26:21actually been fought.
26:23Although the T-Rex is a juvenile, it would still have powerful muscles and tremendous strength.
26:30But would that be enough to defend itself from an adult Nanotyrannus?
26:37When you have a Nanotyrannus and a baby T-Rex together, you're dealing with animals that basically are well adapted
26:44in the same ways.
26:48Even though they're the same size, Tyrannosaurus rex is going to grow up into a lot bigger animal.
26:54And so because of that, the way its muscles are formed, the way its tendons are attached to the bones,
27:01all of this is a little bit different.
27:06They're very similar kinds of animals, and from their basic structure, their strength was probably very comparable.
27:13Probably the differences would most amount to experience if we're talking about a youngster versus an animal that's been around
27:21the block a few times.
27:22If an adult were around, a Nanotyrannus would never dare attack a juvenile rex.
27:28The only time a fight would occur would be if the adults were out hunting and had left the juveniles
27:32alone.
27:34Without the protection of an adult, then a juvenile would need to rely on its sheer bulk as a deterrent
27:38to being attacked.
27:39Even though it's not an adult, a young Tyrannosaurus rex is still a powerhouse.
27:46The long legs of Nanotyrannus may have given it an edge when it came to its speed and agility.
27:52But when attacked, the juvenile T-Rex may have been more than a match.
27:58When we compare a Nanotyrannus versus a sub-adult Tyrannosaurus rex of about the same size, they're going to be
28:06extraordinarily similar in terms of their hind limbs, their tail, and their body proportions.
28:13So they're again going to be very evenly matched when it comes to speed and agility.
28:19Nanotyrannus would have something up on the juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex.
28:23Not only would it be more agile because its musculature was probably a little bit different, but also it would
28:28have a lot more experience than this juvenile T-Rex.
28:30So it would anticipate and be able to make the move a lot more smoothly and more quickly than a
28:37juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex.
28:41Although an adult Nanotyrannus would have been faster and more agile than a juvenile T-Rex, the rex had one
28:47advantage, and that's family support.
28:50If the rex had a sibling, it would change the complexity of the battle very quickly.
28:58With completely different tooth design, these two dinosaurs may have used them differently.
29:04There is no doubt that each were effective weapons, but which would be more deadly in combat?
29:11The thin slicing teeth of Nanotyrannus?
29:14Or the thick crushing teeth of T-Rex?
29:19Their jaws are a little bit different. That's how we tell these two animals apart.
29:24Nanotyrannus has more teeth in its jaws.
29:26The teeth are pretty much the same size as the teeth of a baby Tyrannosaurus rex.
29:33Still, the T-Rex would probably have had a much harder, stronger bite than the Nanotyrannus.
29:43Nanotyrannus' teeth are more primitive in design.
29:46They're much more blade-like, very thin.
29:49Tyrannosaurus rex are almost equal side to side as they are front to back.
29:53This means that their feeding habits were different.
29:56Nanotyrannus would strip carcasses of bones.
29:59Tyrannosaurus rex would eat the whole carcass, including the bones.
30:06The life of a predator depends on its ability to hunt and kill game.
30:10But it also had to defend itself against rivals.
30:16Predatory animals have been at war with each other since the beginning of time.
30:19We see it today in animals like lions and hyenas.
30:23Predators don't tolerate other predators in their same environment because they both compete for the same food source.
30:30So any chance they have to kill a rival, they'll take it.
30:34An adult Nanotyrannus would have certainly taken advantage of an unguarded juvenile because it means getting rid of its competition.
30:44Certainly their animals are similarly enough designed and comparable enough in strength that we might expect that the experience of
30:53the adult Nanotyrannus would actually allow it to win the day over the young Tyrannosaurus rex.
31:02In terms of fighting skills, of course this adult Nanotyrannus will have had a lot more experiences over its lifetime
31:09than this juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex.
31:10So it may have literally years of experience beyond what this other young individual would have had.
31:17In my mind there is no doubt that Nanotyrannus would have been more than a match for a single juvenile
31:22Tyrannosaurus rex.
31:23The real question for me would be, what would happen if a nano killed a rex? Would it eat it
31:28or would it just leave it and move on?
31:31After spending energy in a fight, I would suspect that the winner would need to recharge his batteries and take
31:37advantage of that food source now lying at its feet.
31:39Why this Nanotyrannus didn't eat the juvenile is a pretty interesting question.
31:44Something happened after the fight that prevented him from eating this baby rex.
31:53Nanotyrannus would have had an advantage over a juvenile T-Rex, but two juveniles against a nano would have radically
32:00changed the dynamic of the fight.
32:05By studying the bone fragments from the scene, CAT scan and environmental evidence, and using modern animal behavior as a
32:13guide, experts were able to reconstruct a plausible scenario of an epic battle.
32:20One that took place in South Dakota 65 million years ago.
32:34You are about to see a graphic depiction of a violent prehistoric battle. Viewer discretion is advised.
32:59A pair of adult T-Rexes are on the hunt.
33:05They must leave their babies unguarded.
33:11The juveniles are unaware of approaching danger.
33:18Leaving their young is a very risky thing.
33:20They understand that there's dangers out there, but they've got to leave the young long enough to go out and
33:27hunt for prey.
33:34Traveling in search of prey, the adults could be gone for a long period.
33:44The adults have left a series of scent marks.
33:47They outline boundaries for the juveniles to stay within and for all other dinosaurs to keep out.
33:53Most dinosaurs are repelled by this pungent scent and retreat.
33:58But one dinosaur in particular uses these scent marks as a homing device.
34:03Nanotyrannus actively hunts and kills young Tyrannosauruses.
34:07Not to eat, but to get rid of the competition.
34:13These two unguarded juveniles are at the mercy of this tyrant killer.
34:20A Nanotyrannus knows he's no match for a fully grown T-Rex.
34:24He makes sure the adults are gone before he moves in for the kill.
34:29Senses on high alert.
34:37The two juvenile Tyrannosaurs instinctively know that a predator approaches.
34:43They're too young to have ever seen a Nanotyrannus, but it doesn't matter.
34:48They're hardwired to recognize a threat and face it head on.
34:52The Nanotyrannus doesn't just haphazardly attack.
34:55These young Tyrannosaurs have a special defensive mechanism.
35:00A mouth full of bacteria.
35:02The Nanotyrannus knows that a nit from a young Tyrannosaur could potentially end its life.
35:09These are the first animals to use biological weapons.
35:14One bite full of that bacteria and Nanotyrannus is dead from a massive infection.
35:19If the fight doesn't kill it first.
35:23He moves in cautiously, using his height advantage to assert his dominance.
35:29He leans in, flashing those serrated teeth.
35:34Their hissing is a warning.
35:36We're not backing down.
35:38The fight's on.
35:40The Nanotyrannus hangs back, making mock lunges.
35:44It's a luring technique.
35:47If he can get them out of the nesting area, they have no hope.
35:51But the juveniles instinctively stay in the security of the nesting area.
35:55They stand shoulder to shoulder, facing their attacker.
35:59Nanotyrannus circles his rivals, looking for an opportunity.
36:07The little Tyrannosaurus leaps forward and snaps his jaws and loses his footing.
36:12The Nano grabs the young Tyrannosaurus rex behind the neck, picks him up and throws him like a ragdoll across
36:18the forest floor.
36:23Now he's only got one juvenile left.
36:26The lone juvenile doesn't stand a chance.
36:29The young T-Rex seems panicked.
36:31It wants to turn and run.
36:32But instincts tell it to stand its ground.
36:36It roars as loud as it can.
36:39This is basically a cry for help.
36:41It hopes that mom and dad are near enough to hear this.
36:44The Nanotyrannus knows that the young T-Rex has just sounded an alarm.
36:49He's got to end this battle and he's got to get out of there quick.
36:53He leans in and decides to go for a full frontal attack.
36:59Nanotyrannus leans in again, waiting to make his lethal lunge.
37:03He's using his experience as a veteran fighter to his best advantage.
37:08The T-Rex, a rookie warrior, tries to match his every move.
37:15As he moves in for the kill, Nanotyrannus feels a horrible pain in his left leg.
37:21He looks down and there is the second juvenile T-Rex.
37:26He's recovered from his sling across the forest floor and he's attacking.
37:30He's bitten the Nanotyrannus on the leg.
37:33And if that wound becomes infected, it could end his life.
37:38This time, Nanotyrannus will make sure that the T-Rex dies.
37:42Flexing all the power of his jaws, he clamps down with nearly half a ton of pressure and crushes its
37:49spinal cord.
37:52He throws it to the ground and using his foot claw, he stomps the baby.
37:57Now it knows that juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex is dead.
38:01But there's no time to eat.
38:04One T-Rex down, Nanotyrannus moves in for the final kill.
38:14As he leans down to take a bite, he feels the ground begin to vibrate.
38:26This telltale sign says, there's something big and it's nearby.
38:34That's something big is the adult female T-Rex returning from her hunt.
38:39When she sees what's happened in her absence, all hell will break loose.
38:52A pair of adult Tyrannosaurus rexes have gone on a hunt, leaving their two juveniles unattended.
38:59In their absence, a predatory Nanotyrannus has terrorized their offspring, killing one and threatening the other.
39:06But now, the ground begins to vibrate. The sound can be heard for miles.
39:13It's the adult female T-Rex coming back from her hunt.
39:19She hears the very distinctive sound of her young pleading for help.
39:24It kicks in an emotion that's only found in female Tyrannosauruses.
39:29Mess with my baby, you're messing with hell.
39:33Driven by her maternal instincts, the female is the first to arrive on the scene.
39:41The female Tyrannosaurus knows instinctively this is a killer of juvenile Tyrannosaurus rexes.
39:49She's got to leap into action.
39:51She doesn't have to worry about sizing up this opponent.
39:55She's three times bigger.
39:57She just needs to kill him.
40:03The female T-Rex intends to distract Nanotyrannus from the lone surviving juvenile.
40:10Nano sees her giant jaws and sidesteps with his long legs.
40:15But the female has accomplished the most important thing.
40:19Get herself between her remaining juvenile and the killer of baby T-Rexes.
40:25Now the Nanotyrannus has two options.
40:29Try to finish off the remaining juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex or turn around and run.
40:47It decides to pit its speed and agility against the strength of a mad Tyrannosaurus rex.
40:56He tries to flank her.
40:58If he can move around quickly enough, she cannot respond.
41:00He can go in and with his elongated snout, grab the juvenile, shake it in its mouth and kill it
41:07and flee.
41:09But Nanotyrannus underestimates his opponent.
41:14Fueled by raging levels of adrenaline, she spins and turns, avoiding his flanking move.
41:27The last thing he sees are the open jaws of the female Tyrannosaurus rex.
41:32She grabs the Nanotyrannus in her mouth and using the bite force of a thousand pounds per square inch,
41:39she crushes the back, crushes the ribs and ends the life of this attacker.
41:46But killing the Nanotyrannus isn't enough for the mother T-Rex.
41:51She wants to use him as a message to any other Nanotyrannus that comes into this area.
41:58Using her massive foot claws, she rips apart the body of the Nanotyrannus.
42:06Having killed the attacker, she turns her attention to her lone surviving offspring.
42:18Nanotyrannus had no chance to win this fight.
42:21He lost because he made two fatal mistakes.
42:24Number one, it misjudged the maneuverability of an adult Tyrannosaurus rex.
42:30Number two, he failed to recognize that the bond between a mother and its offspring is stronger than any weapon
42:40it had.
42:42T-Rex may have triumphed over Nanotyrannus in this fight, but in the ultimate battle for survival, they would both
42:49lose.
42:53Nanotyrannus and T-Rex, because they're in Western North America, they may have even seen the flash of their doom,
42:59the great explosion in the Yucatan Peninsula when an asteroid hit it, ending the age of dinosaurs.
43:05Of course, the dinosaurs didn't die immediately.
43:08The big meat-eaters like T-Rex and Nanotyrannus would have actually had a short period of time when they
43:13did really well.
43:14When the starvation starts to hit the plant-eaters, there's a lot of meat available, and the meteors can get
43:20in there and they could gorge.
43:21And then after a while, they're looking around, there's nothing left to eat.
43:25It was too bad for T-Rex and Nanotyrannus, they were gone too.
43:30Gone, but not forgotten.
43:33The mystery of T-Rex and Nanotyrannus may never be fully known.
43:38But while the search for facts continues, this much is certain.
43:4365 million years ago, giant creatures with supersized weapons transformed prehistoric Earth into a battlefield.
43:52And the ultimate contest of speed versus size, size won big.
44:06Next week on Jurassic Fight Club, they were the fiercest dinosaurs ever to walk the Earth.
44:14You know them as raptors.
44:19But when this cunning carnivore takes on a towering dinosaur ten times its size, it's a gang kill.
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