Editing Allosaurus (section)

===Social behavior===
[[File:Labrosaurus.jpg|thumb|left|The holotype dentary of ''Labrosaurus ferox'', which may have been injured by the bite of another ''A. fragilis'']]
It has been speculated since the 1970s that ''Allosaurus'' preyed on sauropods and other large dinosaurs by hunting in groups.<ref name=JF76>{{cite journal |last=Farlow |first=James O. |year=1976 |title=Speculations about the diet and foraging behavior of large carnivorous dinosaurs |journal=American Midland Naturalist |volume=95 |issue=1 |pages=186–191 |doi=10.2307/2424244|jstor=2424244 }}</ref>
Such a depiction is common in semitechnical and popular dinosaur literature.<ref name=DBN85/><ref name=LG93/><ref name=DL83/> [[Robert T. Bakker]] has extended social behavior to parental care, and has interpreted shed allosaur teeth and chewed bones of large prey animals as evidence that adult allosaurs brought food to lairs for their young to eat until they were grown, and prevented other carnivores from scavenging on the food.<ref name=RTB97/> However, there is actually little evidence of gregarious behavior in theropods,<ref name=HMC04/> and social interactions with members of the same species would have included antagonistic encounters, as shown by injuries to gastralia<ref name=DJC00b/> and bite wounds to skulls (the pathologic lower jaw named ''Labrosaurus ferox'' is one such possible example). Such head-biting may have been a way to establish dominance in a pack or to settle territorial disputes.<ref name=TC98>{{cite journal |last=Tanke |first=Darren H. |author-link=Darren Tanke |year=1998 |title=Head-biting behavior in theropod dinosaurs: Paleopathological evidence |journal=Gaia |issue=15 |pages=167–184 |url=https://www.academia.edu/2132861 |archive-date=November 9, 2021 |access-date=December 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109012815/https://www.academia.edu/2132861 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Although ''Allosaurus'' may have hunted in packs,<ref name=completedino>{{cite book |title=The Complete Dinosaur |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOViD-lDPy0C&q=Allosaurus+behavior&pg=PA228 |last=Currie |first=Philip J. |chapter=Theropods |editor=Farlow, James |editor2=Brett-Surman, M.K. |year=1999 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Indiana |isbn=978-0-253-21313-6 |page=228 }}</ref> it has been argued that ''Allosaurus'' and other theropods had largely aggressive interactions instead of cooperative interactions with other members of their own species. The study in question noted that cooperative hunting of prey much larger than an individual predator, as is commonly inferred for theropod dinosaurs, is rare among vertebrates in general, and modern [[diapsid]] carnivores (including lizards, crocodiles, and birds) rarely cooperate to hunt in such a way. Instead, they are typically territorial and will kill and cannibalize intruders of the same species, and will also do the same to smaller individuals that attempt to eat before they do when aggregated at feeding sites. According to this interpretation, the accumulation of remains of multiple ''Allosaurus'' individuals at the same site; e.g., in the [[Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry|Cleveland–Lloyd Quarry]], are not due to pack hunting, but to the fact that ''Allosaurus'' individuals were drawn together to feed on other disabled or dead allosaurs, and were sometimes killed in the process. This could explain the high proportion of juvenile and subadult allosaurs present, as juveniles and subadults are disproportionally killed at modern group feeding sites of animals like crocodiles and [[Komodo dragon]]s. The same interpretation applies to Bakker's lair sites.<ref name=RB07>{{cite journal|last1=Roach|first1=Brian T. |year=2007 |title=A reevaluation of cooperative pack hunting and gregariousness in ''Deinonychus antirrhopus'' and other nonavian theropod dinosaurs|journal=Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=103–138 |doi=10.3374/0079-032X(2007)48[103:AROCPH]2.0.CO;2|last2=Brinkman|first2=Daniel L.|s2cid=84175628 }}</ref> There is some evidence for cannibalism in ''Allosaurus'', including ''Allosaurus'' shed teeth found among rib fragments, possible tooth marks on a shoulder blade,<ref name=BGD04>{{cite journal |last=Goodchild Drake |first=Brandon |year=2004 |title=A new specimen of ''Allosaurus'' from north-central Wyoming |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=24 |issue=3, Suppl |page=65A | doi = 10.1080/02724634.2004.10010643 |s2cid=220415208 }}</ref> and cannibalized allosaur skeletons among the bones at Bakker's lair sites.<ref name=BB04/> On the other hand, pathological analysis done by Foth ''et al.'' argued evidence of surviving serious injuries may support gregariousness in ''Allosaurus''.<ref name=":02">{{cite journal |last1=Foth |first1=Christian |last2=Evers |first2=Serjoscha W. |last3=Pabst |first3=Ben |last4=Mateus |first4=Octávio |last5=Flisch |first5=Alexander |last6=Patthey |first6=Mike |last7=Rauhut |first7=Oliver W.M. |date=12 May 2015 |title=New insights into the lifestyle of Allosaurus (Dinosauria: Theropoda) based on another specimen with multiple pathologies |journal=PeerJ |volume=3 |pages=e940 |doi=10.7717/peerj.940 |pmc=4435507 |pmid=26020001 |doi-access=free}}</ref>