And though we are just now discovering the lengths to which silphid parents go for their brood, the beetles—it appears—learned their morbid tricks while avoiding the foot falls of ancient creature, like Tyrannosaurus rex.
Lurking in the shadows of the forest floor, where these bugs roam, there's a lot of competition: other hungry beetles and lots of vertebrate scavengers, all looking to feast on the same things silphids love to eat.