The sun sinks low in the sky across a clearing in the light-dappled forest. It is springtime in Late Cretaceous Grande Prairie, and the days are already more than fifteen hours long. Animals weary of the long winter darkness rejoice in the long evenings, and in the eruption of vegetation springing forth everywhere.
For Anchiceratops, a horned dinosaur from Cretaceous Alberta, springtime means getting ready to rumble. Every spring, males go head-to-head (literally), as they compete for potential mates. On this evening, the usual sounds of the forest—bird song and the buss of trillions of mosquitoes—is broken by the bellows and grunts of two Anchiceratops bulls facing off. One of the bulls is older and larger and has laid claim to this territory for nearly eight years. His opponent is a young upstart, smaller in body size, but already sporting an impressive set of parietal horns at the edge of his head shield. Time and again, they back up, stare each other down, and then charge each other. So far, neither of them has shown any sign of backing down.
The two bulls are so engrossed in their battle that they haven’t noticed they have an audience. The 8-ton T. rex has been watching and waiting. The large theropod is from a slightly younger geological time period from Anchiceratops, but she is very familiar with the Anchiceratops’ close cousin, the Triceratops. The T. rex knows from experience that these horned dinosaur battles can go south quickly, leaving one of the competitors grievously injured.
Her patience pays off. When the smaller of the two bulls becomes momentarily distracted by a pterosaur flying overhead, his competitor manages to slam into his flank. The younger animal bellows and falls to his side, his hindleg crumpling under him at an odd angle. There is the sickening crunch of bone.
The T. rex seizes her opportunity and bursts out of the forest towards the two Anchiceratops. The older bull bellows in alarm and stumbles backwards before turning tail and stampeding into the undergrowth. His wounded opponent tries to follow but struggles to get up on a broken leg. The T. rex lunges forward and snaps her powerful jaws down on the animal’s exposed neck and throat.
Death comes swiftly and mercifully for the wounded Anchiceratops. The T. rex begins the feast.