Fighting Dinosaurs

The Fighting Dinosaurs is a fossil specimen which was found in the Late Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation of Mongolia in 1971. It preserves a Protoceratops andrewsi (a ceratopsian dinosaur) and Velociraptor mongoliensis (a dromaeosaurid dinosaur) trapped in combat between 75 million and 71 million years ago and provides direct evidence of predatory or agonistic behaviour in non-avian dinosaurs. The specimen has caused much debate as to how both animals came to be preserved together with relative completeness. Several hypotheses have been proposed, including a drowning scenario, burial by either dune collapse or sandstorm, or alternatively they were not buried simultaneously.