page_title: Albertosaurinae
section_title: Pack behaviour
hierarchical_section_title: Albertosaurinae / Paleobiology / Growth / Pack behaviour
caption_attribution_description: Albertosaurus models, Royal Tyrell Museum. this is what greets you on entering the exhibit.
context_page_description: Albertosaurines, or dinosaurs of the subfamily Albertosaurinae, lived in the Late Cretaceous of United States and Canada. The subfamily was first used by Philip J. Currie, Jørn H. Hurum and Karol Sabath as a group of tyrannosaurid dinosaurs. It was originally defined as "", including only the two genera. The group is sister clade to Tyrannosaurinae. In 2007, it was found that the group also contained Maleevosaurus, often synonymized with Tarbosaurus. However, this classification has not been accepted, and Maleevosaurus is still considered a juvenile Tarbosaurus or Tyrannosaurus.
context_section_description: The Dry Island bonebed discovered by Barnum Brown and his crew contains the remains of 26 Albertosaurus, the most individuals found in one locality of any large Cretaceous theropod, and the second-most of any large theropod dinosaur behind the Allosaurus assemblage at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Utah. The group seems to be composed of one very old adult; eight adults between 17 and 23 years old; seven sub-adults undergoing their rapid growth phases at between 12 and 16 years old; and six juveniles between the ages of 2 and 11 years, who had not yet reached the growth phase.
  The near-absence of herbivore remains and the similar state of preservation common to the many individuals at the Albertosaurus bonebed quarry led Currie to conclude that the locality was not a predator trap like the La Brea Tar Pits in California, and that all of the preserved animals died at the same time. Currie claims this as evidence of pack behaviour. Other scientists are skeptical, observing that the animals may have been driven together by drought, flood or for other reasons.
  There is plentiful evidence for gregarious behaviour among herbivorous dinosaurs, including ceratopsians and hadrosaurs. However, only rarely are so many dinosaurian predators found at the same site. Small theropods like Deinonychus, Coelophysis and Megapnosaurus (Syntarsus rhodesiensis) have been found in aggregations, as have larger predators like Allosaurus and Mapusaurus. There is some evidence of gregarious behaviour in other tyrannosaurids as well. Fragmentary remains of smaller individuals were found alongside "Sue," the Tyrannosaurus mounted in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, and a bonebed in the Two Medicine Formation of Montana contains at least three specimens of Daspletosaurus, preserved alongside several hadrosaurs. These findings may corroborate the evidence for social behaviour in Albertosaurus, although some or all of the above localities may represent temporary or unnatural aggregations. Others have speculated that instead of social groups, at least some of these finds represent Komodo dragon-like mobbing of carcasses, where aggressive competition leads to some of the predators being killed and cannibalized. Even though Albertosaurus are commonly found in packs, there is no evidence of group behavior in the close relative Gorgosaurus.
caption: Bronze sculptures of a pack of Albertosaurus, Royal Tyrell Museum, designed by Brian Cooley in 2007[29]
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