NARRATOR: The following
is a graphic depiction of a violent prehistoric battle. Viewer discretion is advised. [intense music] It's the ultimate
battle of the sexes. A male and female engage
in a fight to the death. Now, new discoveries
reveal the fight will go beyond bloodletting. It's a domestic dispute that
will end with one dinosaur committing one of
the most vicious acts of the prehistoric world. They're the Earth's
first fighters, the ultimate predators. New discoveries in
forensic science bring to life the
prehistoric art of war. This is "Jurassic Fight Club." Time travel back
70 million years ago to the prehistoric world. Two super continents,
Laurasia and Gondwanaland. Increasingly fracture. Wild animals evolved and
adapt to a violent earth. On Gondwanaland,
volcanic activity transforms the chaotic terrain. Africa splits from
South America. Then India breaks from Africa,
leaving behind a landmass that will become Madagascar. On this lush, green island,
seasonal rains, as well as extreme droughts and
dramatic temperature changes, have pitted dinosaur
against dinosaur. In a world of vanishing
food and water resources, predators are forced
to fight for survival. GEORGE BLASING:
Life on Madagascar during the late Cretaceous
was pretty difficult. The world's climate
was changing, and it forced
dinosaurs to adapt. The larger the landmass,
the less of an impact these changes had. But when you live
on a small island, these changes are intensified. So to deal with them, dinosaurs
on the island of Madagascar had to adapt in ways that other
dinosaurs would never dream of. NARRATOR: 1996, 25 miles
outside of the city of Mahajanga in northwestern
Madagascar, paleontologists are on a routine excavation. But as they continue
to dig, it's clear that there is something
strange about this particular find. As scientists
unearthed more remains, forensic and
anatomical clues began to paint a picture of the
unidentified dinosaur. One thing became clear-- these bones did not
belong to a plant eater. They belonged to a predator. PHILIP CURRIE: We can very often
tell whether bones belonged to herbivores or carnivores
just by looking at them. In the big,
carnivorous dinosaurs, you have hollow bones. And hollow bones, of course,
can support the animal as long as the bone
around the outside is dense enough to support
the weight of the animal. NARRATOR: In a lab,
paleontologists observed something that stunned them-- peculiar marks and deep
gashes in the bones. The gashes were space 10
to 17 millimeters apart. Scientists were amazed. These were bite marks. Could an epic fight
have taken place here? Were paleontologists looking
at a 70 million year old crime scene? GEORGE BLASING: At first, the
paleontologist had no idea who or what had made these
markings on the bone. But using some of
the same techniques that modern forensic
scientists do today, they were able to solve the
mystery of who it was that made these injuries over
70 million years ago. NARRATOR: Scientists
first needed to identify the dinosaur. They turned to fossil evidence
found in the same area. Close by was a remarkably
well-preserved skull of a large, predatory dinosaur. This predatory monster
was a meat eating dinosaur called Majungatholus. It was the T-Rex of the east. This remarkable discovery gave
paleontologists an opportunity to see inside the skull of
this rare dinosaur Dr. Lawrence Witmer of Ohio University
is head of one of the most advanced dinosaur research
laboratories in the world. Through today's
technological advances, he is able to dig deeper
into the stories of the bones in the brain cavity
than ever before. CT Scanning has
opened a new door into dinosaur behavior and the
mystery of what happened here. CT Scanning is a medical
technology that allows us to look inside an object. But we can use that same
technology on dinosaurs to look inside their skulls
to see through the rock to see how these
animals are built. We can look at the bony
brain cavity in CT scan. And from that, extract
what the form of the brain was like, as well as
all of the tissues that are surrounding that. NARRATOR: CT Scanning of the
skull of Majungatholus gave Witmer and his team clues into
every aspect of this predator-- its senses of vision,
hearing, balance, and agility. By comparing the size and shape
of the brain and inner ear canals to those of modern
birds and reptiles, scientists now have
unprecedented insight into the behavior of
Majungatholus, how it lived and how it could have fought. At first glance, the skull
revealed some unusual details. The exterior was covered in
a thick, rough texture ending in a three inch thick
horn that jutted from the top of the skull. GEORGE BLASING: What makes this
male Majungatholus look so odd are the bumps and strange
horns and spikes that stuck out all over its skull. These are actually designed to
show rivals that this male is a mature adult. They're also
designed to attract a mate. These odd horns and spikes
were probably brightly colored. These are makeup. It's the signal that screams
to the ladies check me out. LAWRENCE WITMER: One of
the interesting things about the horn of Majungatholus
is that it is very rough, and the bone is very sort of
cauliflower-like and bumpy. And in fact, that
bumpiness actually pertains to most of the skull. NARRATOR: The texture
was a valuable clue. The males head was not
merely a hood ornament. It was a weapon that could
be wielded against both rival and prey, a true battering ram. LAWRENCE WITMER:
One of the things that we think is going on with
the bumpy skin of Majungatholus is that it relates to combat. They're potentially
actually interacting in a very direct physical way,
head-to-head or head-to-flank kind of combat. It's a very unusual kind of
thing, the kinds of structures that we don't really see in
animals like Ceratosaurus where the horns we see
are almost delicate kind of structure. So what we see
with Majungatholus is a kind of structure
that was built for combat. GEORGE BLASING: When you look
at the design of the skull of Majungatholus,
you can compare that to modern day big horn sheep. It's very heavily built
and perfectly designed to take a heavy beating. NARRATOR: Majungatholus
thrived and fought to the death more than 70 million years ago. Fossil evidence proved that
the island of Madagascar teemed with a variety
of plants and animals. But in the island
paradise, Majungatholus was at the top of the food
chain, the ultimate predator. GEORGE BLASING:
Every environment has an apex predator that is
the ultimate predator, the top of the food chain. On North America, Tyrannosaurus
rex was that apex predator. But on the island of Madagascar,
it was Majungatholus. THOMAS HOLTZ: Majungatholus
was the top predator in its community. In general, it would have
spent its day stalking around for prey, killing something,
and when it killed it, ate it, and rested for a while. NARRATOR: As more bones emerge
from the possible crime scene, scientists began
to get a clearer picture of the true size
of this island terror. He was a two-legged
predator, standing 9-feet tall, 28-feet long, and weighing
one ton, the mass of a baby elephant. Along with its size and a
reinforced, head-butting skull, one weapon stood out that
made Majungatholus even more dangerous-- a mouthful of serrated,
meat-slicing teeth. A closer inspection
of the Jaws would reveal that, like a
shark, Majungatholus had rows of teeth that
worked like a conveyor to continuously
replace worn teeth. GEORGE BLASING: The
teeth of Majungatholus were pretty incredible. They were replaced
throughout its entire life. When a tooth got dull, it
would fall out and be replaced by a brand new tooth. They were also serrated on
both the front and back edges, making them perfect
for slicing meat. NARRATOR: But
Majungatholus still had one additional weapon that
was capable of delivering a lethal blow-- its massive tail. With reinforced bones
and powerful muscles, the dinosaur could wield its
tail like an oversized baseball bat. Although Majungatholus was
a force to reckon with, it was not without
its shortcomings. Even the king of the
jungle had his weaknesses. The first was its
unusually small arms. THOMAS HOLTZ: Majungatholus'
arm is incredibly short. It's got an upper-arm bone. But its forearm has shrunken,
so it's basically a wrist. MARK LOEWEN: From
the elbow to the hand is probably less than a foot. It definitely does not have any
functional grasping ability. It doesn't have any
slashing ability. It's basically a vestigial arm. NARRATOR: Its second
drawback was its legs, which were relatively short
compared to its overall body size. MARK LOEWEN: The length
of dinosaur legs certainly had an effect on
how fast they were. Animals with longer legs
were presumably faster than animals with shorter legs. LAWRENCE WITMER: What
we see in Majungatholus is an animal that's
not built for speed. This is an animal that was
pretty fast, but still not the kind of swift-footed
runner that we see in other kinds of dinosaurs. NARRATOR: It is estimated that
Majungatholus may have been able to run only 10
to 15 miles per hour, not much faster than
an average human. But given its
densely-forested environment, speed may not have been as
important to this hunter. THOMAS HOLTZ: They didn't
have to be particularly fast because there were no
really fast dinosaurs known from its environment. So you only have to be
faster than your meal. You don't have to be
faster than something else that you're never going see. NARRATOR: CAT scan
evidence revealed the dinosaurs third weakness-- poor vision. LAWRENCE WITMER: With
Majungatholus, we can look at the brain structure
and see that the visual centers are not tremendously enlarged. They're relatively modest. One of the really interesting
aspects of the visual system is whether these animals
had binocular vision. In other words, did their
visual field overlap? Because that actually
provides depth perception. PETER LARSON: Majungatholus has
very limited binocular vision. The construction of their
skull made it a little bit more difficult to get that
binocular vision. So as they're sizing
each other up, they're going to really kind
of looking from side to side. But if one moves quickly,
it's going to get out of that binocular vision. So there'll be a lot of
juggling for position between these guys,
kind of like boxers will do before they
start their fight. NARRATOR: Somehow, an apex
predator at the top of the food chain was attacked and killed. The attacker was unknown. Fossil evidence has given
investigators new insight into the behavior
of Majungatholus and what could have
happened at this site. But a new clue lies just inches
below the surface of the soil. A discovery will reveal one
of the most disturbing pieces of dinosaur evidence
ever unearthed. Halfway around the
world, paleontologists have unearthed the remains of
a dinosaur named Majungatholus. The bones had deep
gouges and wounds, suggesting that a massive
battle had taken place. The bite marks were so violent
that they left embedded gashes in the bone. It is here where
the investigation took a surprising turn. Paleontologists continued
to study the scene and look more
closely at the marks. What they found
would reveal evidence of one of the most gruesome
acts in the animal kingdom-- cannibalism. There were two Majungatholuses
in this battle. One apex predator
killed another. GEORGE BLASING: On the
island of Madagascar, they made a pretty
incredible discovery. They found the fossilized
skeleton of a Majungatholus with bite marks from
another Majungatholus. This is absolute evidence
that a battle took place, and one Majungatholus
killed the other. NARRATOR: The
common perception is that most predatory
dinosaurs were cannibals. But in fact, this
discovery would become the first clear case of
dinosaur cannibalism ever found in the prehistoric world. GEORGE BLASING: When the
paleontologists studied the tooth marks, they used
high-powered microscopes to look deeper
into the evidence. What they found were
telltale signs of serrations, meaning the culprit who chewed
these bones had serrated teeth and jaws powerful
enough to cut the bone. Since no other
dinosaur on Madagascar had been found with
teeth this large, it pretty much ruled
out all other predators. NARRATOR: Measuring the width,
length, and serrated edges of the teeth and calculating
the spacing between the teeth in the jaw, investigators
were able to determine that the teeth and
jaws of Majungatholus matched the gash marks in
the bone almost perfectly. Majungatholus
has serrated teeth. Each one of those
little serrations is called a denticle. The denticle marks
found in the bones were spaced about 0.48
millimeters apart. In studying Majungatholus
teeth, paleontologists discovered that they had an
average spacing of about 0.5 millimeters. That's nearly identical
to those left on the bone. NARRATOR: What began as a
routine dig was shaping up to be a battle to
end all battles-- two Majungatholus in
a fight to the death. But one question remained. Were these bite marks just
the result of a fight? Or did one Majungatholus
actually eat the other? THOMAS HOLTZ: We know this
wasn't just fighting, not just bite marks on the
snout, for example. These are tooth marks that
are on the inside bones of the body, on leg
bones, and back bones, and ribs that you couldn't
get to from the outside. So clearly, at least on
occasion, Majungatholus ate other Majungatholus. NARRATOR: Now that
scientists had proof that they were looking
at cannibalism, what other evidence is
there to piece together how these cannibals would
have fought in this battle? In addition to the CAT scans
and the fossil remains, paleontologists must study
modern animal behavior for clues. GEORGE BLASING:
The one thing that doesn't change in the
animal kingdom is behavior. All animals, including man,
have the same basic behavioral traits as our ancestors. Knowing this, paleontologists
are able to look at modern life as a way to understand the
behavior of prehistoric life. NARRATOR: There is little doubt
that a male Majungatholus was a formidable creature. But now, a new theory arose
that would dramatically change the dynamic of the fight. What about the females? While studying the fossil
site, investigators had to ask the question. Could one of the dinosaurs
in this battle be female? It's a question that would
not be easy to answer. But studying the fossilized
remains of similar dinosaurs and looking to modern
animals for clues, paleontologists attempt
to answer the question. The first step was to find out
how female dinosaurs sized-up compared to males. Majungatholus, like
most theropods, most meat eating dinosaurs,
there was probably a sexual size difference between
the males and the females. In Tyrannosaurus rex,
we know that the biggest and baddest ones were females. But we don't know yet, because
we don't have enough specimens, how Majungatholus
fit into that scheme. NARRATOR: Although there may
have been a difference in size, their basic skeletal design
would have remained the same. The female would have had
the same short arms and legs, sharp teeth, and powerful tail. But what about their
general appearance? Would the male and
female look alike? When we look at lots of
different kind of animals today, people are
a good example, the males and females
look different. We call that sexual dimorphism. And a good question is
was Majungatholus sexually dimorphic? Did the males look
different from the females? Once we look at theropods
dinosaurs, virtually any species where we
have multiple specimens, we do see that there tends to
be two morphs, or two types, once you get to the adult stage. One may be heavier than
the other, for example. The other may be more
lightly built, more gracile. Or it may be that they have a
difference in the crest on top of the head, or the bump on
the top of the head in the case of Majungatholus. Unfortunately for Majungatholus
and most theropods dinosaurs, we don't have a lot of
specimens to work with. NARRATOR: But there's a clue. Remarkably, over the
past two decades, numerous fossil discoveries,
including feathered dinosaurs, have proven a relationship
between birds and predatory dinosaurs. From this fossil
evidence, paleontologists believe that, like
in male birds, the male Majungatholus would
have been more brightly colored and adorned than the female. GEORGE BLASING: In order
to understand things like color and behavior
of prehistoric life, we have to look to modern
life to give us those clues. Well, Majungatholus
and birds are related. We know that. The evidence is very clear. And birds, the males, have a
much brighter color pattern. Male birds also have strange
ornamentation on their skull. Look at a Guinea fowl
or look at a turkey. You'll find that the female
skulls are relatively plain, and the male skulls
are very bright and have a lot of these
fleshy appendages that make them attractive. LAWRENCE WITMER: The one thing
that we can sort of suggest is that animals that clearly had
visual display organs, things on their body, is that
they probably used them. It's very reasonable to suggest
that these different kinds of structures that we see on
the skull of Majungatholus, or even other kinds of
predatory dinosaurs, are in fact the kinds of
features that would be used in courtship displays
among these different kinds of animal. NARRATOR: Along with skin color,
ornamentation of their skulls, and their body sizes, there
was another clear difference between the sexes. She was a warrior. The female was much
more aggressive when defending her young. It's a vital piece
of information. Paleontologists believe
that this actually helped hone her fighting skills. GEORGE BLASING: A full grown
Majungatholus is pretty much able to take care of itself. But babies are a
different matter because a lot of animals that
would love to be able to snuff you out when you're little
so that you don't ever grow to full size. Females got to deal with
not only things that want to harm her, but things
that want to harm her young. And there's a lot
more animals that are willing to step
up against a baby than there are against an adult. So the female is forced to
defend not only herself, but her baby from predators. And that's what gives her fight
skills that a male will never have. NARRATOR: As in
any investigation, the environment plays a crucial
role in piecing together any mystery. The prehistoric world
is no exception. Like a modern day
battlefield, scientists must study the climate and
terrain in which they would have fought. We know that the land
70 million years ago varied from densely forested,
to jungle-like, to swampy. Based on the variety
of plants, Madagascar would have seen seasonal changes
and times of severe drought. Evergreen and conifer trees
reaching 100 feet high covered much of the landscape. GEORGE BLASING: If
you look at any forest today, like Yellowstone
Park for instance, we've done a great job of
clearing out the fallen logs and debris that usually
litter the forest floor. Of course, back then, that
wouldn't have happened. So moving through
those forests could have been incredibly difficult,
especially during a fight. NARRATOR: As it turns out, the
terrain would play a vital part in this investigation. Paleontologists now know
that the bones were moved. And not only that, they
were moved very soon after the dinosaur died. This tells us one thing-- flash flood. GEORGE BLASING: Looking at
the geology of the dig site, paleontologists could see
that the bones had been washed into their final resting place. This location was not where
the battle had taken place. It's simply where the remains
of the eaten dinosaur ended up. The evidence suggests that
flood waters carried them. NARRATOR: In late 2007,
experts first began to reconstruct a plausible
ramp-up to this battle from 70 million years ago. A male Majungatholus could
have entered the territory of a female. His motive was sex, but
she has other ideas. When approached by
a male, the female would have been very
cautious until she understood his intentions. To protect herself
and her territory, she must make it clear
that she is no pushover. Paleontologists think that to
ensure her safety the female could have relied on
three distinctive moves before launching into an attack. The first move is
to stand her ground. GEORGE BLASING: When you're
approached by a rival, the last thing you want to
do is turn tail and run. First, it means you
lose your territory. But worse, your rival
might think you're food. The rules of the animal
kingdom are pretty clear. Break one of these rules, and
you're liable to end up dead. NARRATOR: She would then
have moved to step two. Turning her body sideways will
show the male her massive size. Next came the flash of
those razor-sharp teeth. Baring her teeth would
send a very clear signal to an aggressor. Once the female would
have made her rival aware of her disposition, it is
up to him to convince her that he is here
to mate, not kill. GEORGE BLASING: Mating can
be a pretty dangerous thing if the object of your desire has
three-inch-long serrated teeth and a bad attitude. The first thing she's
going to suspect is actually there to challenge
her for her territory. The male had better
do everything possible to show this female
that he is not a threat. NARRATOR: To demonstrate his
intentions and change her mood, the male would have begun to
perform a courtship dance. CAT scan evidence shows that
the brain of Majungatholus was incredibly small and,
therefore, primitive, leading paleontologists to
speculate that this dance would have been very simple. Certainly given the
brain size of something like Majungatholus, which has
a relatively primitive brain, we would expect them to have
the kinds of primitive, very ritualized courtship rituals
that we see in lizards and crocodiles today, very
stereotyped, rigid kinds of courtship behaviors. NARRATOR: Although the
male tries his best, the female is not receptive. He has no idea that he's
dancing with the devil. Ripped from the
continent of Gondwanaland by the violent upheavals of
the Earth's tectonic plates, the island of
Madagascar is born. Surrounded by sea,
the island quickly becomes a lush,
green garden of Eden. But evolution has
a way of spoiling this pristine environment. A terrifying
inhabitant emerged-- Majungatholus. In these steamy jungles, a
colossal battle of the sexes took place. Was this just a lover's spat? Or was there more to this story? To help piece together
a viable scenario, paleontologists would
size up the competitors. The skeletal design
of Majungatholus shows that these were
very powerful animals. But was there a difference in
size and strength between male and female? LAWRENCE WITMER: We do
see some differences between the different specimens
that we find of Majungatholus. It's hard for us to know whether
those are just differences between different
individuals or differences that we can associate
to differences in sex. Both of these animals would
probably fairly comparable, in terms of their general
size, and strength, and general capabilities. NARRATOR: Although these were
not considered giant predators, they were still
packed with muscle. What effect would this have
on their speed and agility? Majungatholus is not
necessarily a fast and agile animal. It doesn't have to be. It lived on an island, and the
prey animals that lived with it were relatively slow. But I think the female would
have been a little bit faster and more agile than the male. We know that in this
particular group of dinosaurs, when you look at the attachments
to the muscles in the legs, that there are some slight
differences between the males and females. The fact that there's a
stronger shelf in what we think are the males seems to suggest
stronger muscle attachments. And that means that they may
have had more powerful muscles in the legs, which may
mean that, on one hand, they were stronger, but
maybe on the other hand, they were not as fast. NARRATOR: In addition to
their formidable build, the male and female hold a
jaw full of serrated teeth and a domed head used
as a battering ram. They used both when
they went head-to-head on the battlefield. GEORGE BLASING: Although
the male and female may look different, they have
basically the same weaponry. They both have that big knob on
top of their head, which would be used as a ramming device. But their teeth, their teeth
are their number one weapon. They have the same weapon,
basically the same weapons. There is no more
teeth, no fewer teeth. There's no difference
in design of teeth. It's only in what's
going on in their brain and what's going on in
their automatic responses to things that are built up
over a lifetime experiences. NARRATOR: When it comes
to attacking an adversary, the sexes are quite different. The male acquired hunting
skills necessary to capture prey or a suitable mate. However, like modern
birds and reptiles, the mother racked up more
hours on the front lines as a defensive fighter,
protecting her offspring. THOMAS HOLTZ: Whereas
the male Majungatholus may have the skills
for the ritual combat to fight over access to
females or territory, the females might had
one situation where they have an advantage. It's going to know how
to defend its young, and it's going to
fight pretty savagely. LAWRENCE WITMER: Now if the
female were actually defending its young, then that, in a
sense, changes the equation. And consequently, the intensity
of battle might be different. Because at that
point, the intensity wouldn't be just about a
meal or about territory. It would be about her heritage,
her genes, and her future. PETER LARSON: The female is
going to want to save her life. If she has offspring nearby,
she may fight to the death. If the young is not
there, she's going to leave because she needs
to protect her ability to reproduce. I think that if you throw
a young Majungatholus which the female is going to try
to protect into the mix, you kind of change things
around a little bit. And she's maybe not going to
leave before the fight is done. She's not going to
abandon the fight if she feels that her offspring
is going to be endangered. And she'll fight
for that offspring. NARRATOR: Life on Madagascar
was a difficult struggle for an adult Majungatholus. But survival for a juvenile
was nearly impossible without the protection
of an adult. GEORGE BLASING: Being confined
on the island of Madagascar in the late Cretaceous was
pretty tough because what it did is it took
all of the dinosaurs and forced them into
a very small area. So unlike animals on the
mainland where the female could leave the juveniles
unattended while she hunted, on Madagascar, because all these
animals were confined in such a small space, it was much
more likely that somebody would happen across these babies. And when you're an
unprotected baby, there's a tremendous
amount of danger. NARRATOR: In the dark,
dense forests of Madagascar, danger came in many forms. But one in particular,
isolationism, had an effect that would
turn this island paradise into a prison where only one
sentence was carried out-- death. GEORGE BLASING: On an island
where you're separated from others, it
means the chances of meeting a mate from the
opposite sex are reduced. And more importantly, it means
that those that you meet, you could very well be
very closely related to. So the number one
problem is inbreeding. And with inbreeding comes
a couple of very nasty side effects, like you have less
of a tolerance for disease. Your bone structure
can be weaker. You're a lot more
susceptible to early death. But the number one
problem with inbreeding is that the possibility of
creating mutations exists. Majungatholus may have had
that ugly face because it was the end result of inbreeding. NARRATOR: Relying on evidence
collected from the dig sites and knowledge of
modern animal behavior, experts can recreate
a plausible scenario where a female competes
with a male in a final fight to the death. You are about to see
a graphic depiction of a violent prehistoric battle. Viewer discretion is advised. Planet Earth, 70 million years
ago, a male Majungatholus is on the prowl for a female. GEORGE BLASING: He
picks up the scent of a female Majungatholus. He knows it's a female
simply by her scent. He moves in cautiously
knowing that if she has a mate there could be a confrontation. NARRATOR: Slowly, cautiously,
the male moves further into her territory, following
her scent like a roadmap. GEORGE BLASING: He works
his way towards the center of her territory
looking for this female. He finds her. She's in a small, open
clearing surrounded by very dense vegetation. He moves in and begins to
demonstrate his intentions. He's not an aggressor. He is simply trying to
woo her into mating. He goes to a series of
steps designed to put her into a non-defensive mood. She doesn't react
the way he expects, and he doesn't understand it. NARRATOR: The female is
uninterested in his advances. GEORGE BLASING: He sways
slowly back and forth again to try to describe
to her his intention. She refuses to
accept his advances. She bares her teeth and hisses
with a deep, rumbling growl. This is a clear message that
she's looking for a fight. The Majungatholus male continues
his dance to try to entice her, but she will not respond. She continues in an
aggressive posture. The male tries to
shift his position, perhaps put her in
a different area and see if that will
change her mood. NARRATOR: But the female's focus
is not exclusively on the male. GEORGE BLASING: As
he moves to the side, he realizes that, hidden
behind her, is her offspring. The male knows immediately
that's the reason why the female is not responsive
to his reproductive dance. NARRATOR: The male realizes the
female will not be responsive as long as her
offspring is alive. He knows he's got to
get rid of that baby. In his brain, his
mind switches over from reproduction to killing. He needs to take out that
baby, and he needs to do it without being killed himself. NARRATOR: The female becomes
suspicious of the males sudden change in attitude. Her maternal instincts
shift into overdrive. She knows he's seen the baby. She puts herself between
the baby and the male as the male slowly begins to
outflank her and outmaneuver her to have access to the baby. NARRATOR: The baby
lays motionless, but the male has
already spotted him. He needs to take him out. GEORGE BLASING: The male
lowers his head and rushes in, mouth agape, trying
to grab the baby. But the female is quick to
react and lowers her head and rams the male
with incredible power. The male, being bigger,
recovers relatively quickly and turns to face the female. He knows that he may have to
attack the female in order to get to the juvenile. He doesn't want to
kill the female, but he will if he believes
his life is in jeopardy. Although the male
is larger in size, the female can match that
with incredible ferocity. She's defending her young
and will fight to the death. NARRATOR: The male
turns his attention back towards the female. The female knows that the
male has seen her offspring. Enraged, she kicks up
dirt like a mad bull, pawing the ground
before charging. The male has got to be careful. He knows a protective mother
can be extremely violent. But his reproductive
urges outweigh caution. They go through a series
of steps, each trying to intimidate the other. But it doesn't work. The male is intent
on reproduction, and the female is intent
on defending her young. The male is intent on
killing that juvenile, and the female is
intent on defending him. NARRATOR: The male again
moves in for the kill, but the female shifts
sideways and swats him with her powerful tail. The male absorbs the blow
and regains his footing. He launches a second
frontal assault. The female again
thwarts his advances. The male attempts to lure
the female further away from her baby. He makes a series
of mock charges and draws back with each one. Once she is far enough
away from the baby, the male rushes her head on. The female loses sight
of her surroundings. GEORGE BLASING: She traps on
the log and falls to the ground. This is the opportunity the
male's been waiting for. The female Majungatholus
made one fatal error. She was so focused on
defending her baby, she lost track of
her environment. When you place a big foot
like Majungatholus has on the ground, you better
be assured of your footing, and she wasn't. And that's what tripped
her up and gave the male his opportunity. NARRATOR: The male advances
towards the defenseless baby. With the female now
out of the picture, he seizes his best chance
to go for the kill. With his razor sharp teeth,
he grabs the unguarded baby. Although the male has
made the first kill, this battle is just beginning. 70 million years ago,
a baby Majungatholus is snatched from his mother. The male knows he needs to
kill the offspring in order to successfully mate
with the mother. The male Majungatholus
has this baby in his jaws. He shakes and crushes it
with tremendous force. The juvenile lays
helpless in his jaws. NARRATOR: For a brief
moment, the jungle is silent. Then, suddenly from
out of the brush, the female charges into view. The mother goes for the jugular. She now launches
an attack on the male and grabs him by the
rear of the neck. Using all the power she has,
she crushes the vertebra in the males neck. The male drops the baby as
he slumps to the ground. He's unable to move. GEORGE BLASING: She
severed his spinal cord. He's completely helpless,
but still alive. The female leans down
and sniffs her baby to look for signs of life. There's absolutely no movement,
and she knows the baby's dead. NARRATOR: Although she risked
her life to save her young, the female Majungatholus
is incapable of mourning. GEORGE BLASING: The
brain of a dinosaur works like a light switch. There's an on, and
there's an off. They only think of
one thing at a time. They live in the very
moment they're in. When she realized that
her baby was dead, the female Majungatholus' brain
switched over from maternal to dinner. She now sees her baby
as a food source. She's got to replenish the
calories she burned fighting the male. Her baby is the first course. The male is the main course. NARRATOR: But the female
isn't fully satiated. She now turns her attention
to her second victim. GEORGE BLASING: He's still
alive, but he can't move. He makes a perfect target, and
he's going to get eaten alive. NARRATOR: She leans over,
rips open his stomach, and continues her
feeding frenzy. GEORGE BLASING: The female
Majungatholus shoves her head into the stomach
cavity of the male. She's seeking the
most nutritious parts. She pulls her blood-covered
nose out of the stomach. And in her Jaws are the liver. This is the most precious
part of her prey. The liver is usually
the first thing predators are going to eat. It's the largest
organ in the body. And more importantly, it's
rich in vitamins and iron. And this is something
predatory dinosaurs crave. NARRATOR: The cannibal
dinosaur will continue to gorge until her gut is full. GEORGE BLASING: This is
not an act of vengeance. The female Majungatholus
eats the male for sustenance, not to get even for what
it did to her young. NARRATOR: Although these
monsters appeared evenly matched, the males
miscalculations and missed opportunities cost
him the fight-- and his life. GEORGE BLASING: Had the male
Majungatholus found this baby unguarded, it would
have killed it. When the female would
return, she would instantly go into reproductive mode
because she didn't have a baby to defend. But because she was there
defending the young, the moment the male killed
it, she instantly attacked it in an
effort to save the baby. NARRATOR: Despite
the female's victory, her species eventually
loses a bigger battle. They became extinct
65 million years ago. Majungatholus faced the
exact same consequences all animals do during
an environmental change. The island of Madagascar was
drifting further out to sea. Plant life suffered first. As those plants
began to disappear, herbivores that lived on
them began to disappear. And that left Majungatholus with
having nothing left on the menu except for another
Majungatholus. NARRATOR: Paleontologists
are currently prospecting for more clues about
this elusive cannibal dinosaur. THOMAS HOLTZ: As people continue
to explore Madagascar for more fossils, some of the
things we'd really like to see about Majungatholus-- are there really differences
between the sexes? And in order to test that
idea, we need more skulls. NARRATOR: Scientists
still continue to search for the
differences between the sexes of this dinosaur species. But one thing's certain,
70 million years ago, one Majungatholus
showed another who's boss on the prehistoric
battlefields of Madagascar. Next week on
"Jurassic Fight Club," he was the king
of all dinosaurs. But to one rival, he was prey. New science reveals
how Tyrannosaurus rex, the most aggressive hunter
ever, became the hunted.
