Jimmy Fragile

Here ant our Morrison reserve, the arid savannahs of Late Jurassic North America is home to two species of Allosaurus, the fragile and the Jim Madsen’s. Because of their coexistence and relationship, they are able to hybridise with each other. The best studied of hybrid offspring is "Jimmy Fragile", a 20-year-old Allosaurus hybrid whose parents are a male A. fragilis and a female A. jimmadseni. He has traits from both of his different parents, such as his skull being as robust as his father's but also as sleck as his mother's. He is the only individual surviving out of a batch of 10 hybrid hatchlings from the same parents, even at maturity. Now Jimmy has successfully courted a mate, a female A. fragilis. Thanks to this, they may soon give rise to the next generation of Allosaurus hybrids.

When you hear the word "hybrid dinosaur," you might think of the catastrophic, pure-white, genetic abomination that is the Indominus rex from Jurassic World, but this is not the kind shown here. That’s right, we’re talking about actual hybrid dinosaurs that could’ve happened. Today in our world, hybrid animals like grolar bears are plentiful. Here’s a real, analogous example of a hybrid dinosaur, a Canada/greylag goose. Its parents aren’t even just different species from each other, but also separate genera.

Barely is the idea of a plausible hybrid dinosaur shown in palaeoart, except for fictional, Jurassic Park-esque, genetic amalgamations. I was particularly inspired by the great palaeoart book All Yesterdays, where it referenced hybridisation. The Jim Madsen’s allosaur may be an earlier species than the fragile allosaur, but with specimens like Big Al, a famous, well-preserved Jim Madsen’s allosaur late in stratigraphy, we know that they did coexist with each other for a while, so Jimmy Fragile really could’ve happened.