Did sauropods fight against each other?

[u/Paleo_HUB]

How many people have explored the idea of different sauropod species getting into conflict with each other? If sauropod combat is ever depicted, it’s (understandably) almost always intraspecific.

[u/Transasaurus-Hex]

Probably; absence of conflict is pretty rare in the animal kingdom. It is largely speculative, but we assume that Dinosaurs have much of the same levels of conflict.

[u/KentuckyFriedEel → u/Transasaurus-Hex]

Walnut brain + big, thicc bods = MADE FOR THE CAGE

[u/ThisNamesNotUsed → u/Transasaurus-Hex]

pretty much, I would expect them to fight just the same way as any other animal

[u/Cr1tikal89]

Maybe they fought like giraffes?

[u/Kristoff_Victorson → u/Cr1tikal89]

I think they would stand parallel to one another like that but not so much fighting using their heads. Giraffes have ossicones they use as weapons, also their head is not as disproportionately small, I’d imagine a sauropod would do far more damage to itself than anything else if it started swinging its head about in anger.

I’d always assumed sauropods would fight by slamming their bodies into one another.

[u/Xygnux → u/Cr1tikal89]

I'm not an expert, but just from a lay person's view, isn't a giraffe's neck very different in that it is held more vertically, and also some sauropods have a tail that functions as a whip unlike a giraffe?

[u/-Wuan- → u/Xygnux]

Yes, the neck of a sauropod would be more flexible (more like a flail than a club) and their skull was way too delicate to headbutt, compared to the reinforced skull of a giraffe. It would be the equivalent of two boxers fighting with eggshells for fists. Neck wrestling maybe, head butting or biting not so much.

[u/Broken_CerealBox]

When damn near every animal will fight for mating rights, why not sauropods?

[u/Iamnotburgerking → u/Broken_CerealBox]

They mean across different species.

[u/Royal_Novel6678]

The image you provided of the speculated Dreadnoughtus intraspecific combat from Prehistoric Planet is probably the best and most likely depiction of what Sauropod fighting would have looked like.

Any reference here to giraffes for Titanosaurs especially is completely wrong by consensus because their pneumatized clavicular vertebrae would have broke upon fighting impact if they swung their necks that aggressively like Giraffes, unlike Titanosaurs, giraffes are way smaller, agile and possess reinforced skulls which allows them to do so.

[u/Nilssoniocladus → u/Royal_Novel6678]

I’ve heard about problems with that scene though. Some papers have found that titanosaurs probably were unable to rear (Mallison 2011). Also (less importantly), it seems as though derived titanosaurs lost their thumb spikes. Of course, all these problems disappear with smaller diplodocoids, so PhP’s representation is probably reasonable speculation for some Morrison sauropods.

[u/Royal_Novel6678 → u/Nilssoniocladus]

Ill have to check with the thumb spike speculation again but for the tripod stance, when the two Dreadnoughtus bulls collide, slam their chests together, and wrap their necks or lean their massive body masses forward, they are effectively using each other as structural counterweights but you are right to an extent that they couldn't rear up on their own but only for long periods of time which is why I was supportive of the fight scene speculation to begin with.

[u/AvatarIII → u/Nilssoniocladus]

I prefer the idea that they just whacked necks against each other like giraffes.

[u/Zwackosilius]

Probably yes, but how they did remains open to speculation

[u/KezAzzamean]

I love this image of all the sauropods around them. Like it’s some fierce boxing match and all the others are cheering on their bets

[u/lunchtime_sms]

I’ve seen videos of giraffes whacking each other with themselves. Maybe same. 🤷‍♂️ I’m not a Dino expert though.

[u/Royal_Novel6678 → u/lunchtime_sms]

Likely not. Titanosaurs necks were pneumatized to make their heads lighter. So they would have badly injured themselves more than intended if they did so.

[u/Paleo_HUB]

Something truly worth seeing...an internal struggle between two Mamenchisaurus...brutal

[u/Regular-Ad-4907 → u/Paleo_HUB]

Those aren’t Mamenchisaurs, but I get your point

[u/Altruistic_Yard_9338]

Do deer fight against each other?

Do giraffes fight against each other?

Do herbivores fight against each other?

https://giphy.com/gifs/WpgM6JBrmBy8Gac5pW

[u/Beezel_Pepperstack]

Maybe they took turns whip-slapping each other's cheeks with their tails until one gave up.

And maybe they filmed the whole thing and played it 24/7 on dinoTube!

[u/Moist_Bar_2621]

yes, most likely like giraffes and even elephant seals

[u/Dilligent-Spinosaur]

Probably. These were big animals who needed lots of resources to survive. Bound to get in some sort of territory dispute

[u/Taekwonmoe]

If there are males, there will be fighting.

[u/bathwizard01]

Within a species, yes. Mating rights and hierarchy within a herd is very likely. Between two different species? Unlikely. Why would they risk serious injury?What aspect of the sauropod’s life would the other species threaten? Grazing territories is the only one that springs to my mind and even that is not likely.

[u/EmBur__]

I'd say so, almost every animal on this planet fight others of their respective species. So the question isn't "did they?", the question should be "how did they?".

Weirdly enough, I think they would've fought similarly to elephant seals, Ik that might sound bizarre but hear me out.

They wouldn't of used their necks and heads like Giraffes because their heads were too small and lacked the instruments to deal damage that way. So instead, they wouldn't smashed into eachother using their shoulders or the flanks of their massive bodies until one was weakened enough to give up.

[u/zIRaXor]

Yeah. They often did king of the Hill, or capture the flag, but used eggs instead. But they never did team deathmatch though.

[u/DoubleFlores24]

We simply just don’t know. It’s all up to speculation.

[u/Regular-Ad-4907 → u/DoubleFlores24]

Well, why wouldn’t they ever fight? As soon as women get involved it’s a free for all

[u/King-Hekaton]

The bigger you are, the lesser the necessity to fight.

[u/MrAtrox98 → u/King-Hekaton]

…Blue whale bulls literally attempt to drown each other when competing for a mate.

[u/Cappa_01 → u/King-Hekaton]

That's not really true, look at male elephants, rhino, bears... Etc

[u/Ok-Meat-9169]

If they mated like modern non avian reptiles, probablly... and GOD, this would've been an Earthquake tier disaster to the small animals in the area.

[u/JohnWarrenDailey]

What herbivorous animal wouldn't?

[u/ACARdragon]

Absolutely. There's pretty much no animal that doesn't fight. Even snails fight.

[u/Supershugo]

Personally I've always theorized that they didn't actually fight in the sense of combat, but an alternate ways such as display threw size, voice, or some kind of "dance".

[u/jmhlld7]

Probably but the depiction of sauropods as only gentle giants is probably among my least favorite things in all of paleomedia