Nature & Environment
T-Rex Tooth Found in Dino Tailbone Proves That It was Indeed a Predator
Benita Matilda
First Posted: Jul 16, 2013 10:18 AM EDT
A latest discovery in South Dakota puts an end to the century's long unending debate among paleontologists about the diet of the most popular and vicious Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Till now paleontologists argued that T. rex was a mere scavenger and not a true predator. But it seems the movies were right to depict him as the villainous predator that chased its prey.
The research team discovered a 1.5 inch crown of a T.rex tooth wedged in the tail of a plant eating dinosaur Hadrosaur that existed some 67 million years ago and roamed in the lands of Western America. They noticed that the backbone had grown over the tooth suggesting that the animal recovered after an encounter with the ferocious T.rex.
Some scientists still argue over the diet of the T.rex stating that they were scavengers feeding on carcasses of dead animals. They got this clue from the scars of bites seen on fossils and footprints.
Dr David Burnham from the University of Kansas, who found the tooth along with a graduate student, said, "The fused vertebrae and embedded tooth are the result of an attack on a live hadrosaur, not the scavenging of a carcass, and represent unequivocal evidence of a predator-prey relationship. We now have conclusive evidence that T-Rex indeed engaged in predatory behaviour. Whereas previously cited fossil evidence, such as isolated tooth marks, might have been easily misconstrued as the result of scavenging behaviour our specimen includes the identities of the prey animal and the attacker, and the fact that the prey was alive when attacked. Moreover, the position of the injury - the tail - suggests that T-Rex could possibly have engaged in pursuit predation.'
In fossil records such evidence is rare as a prey rarely escapes the predator. Apart from this smoking-gun evidence, the researchers found the position of the tooth to be constant with the modern pursuit attacks by predators such as that of the African lions that often chase their prey.
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First Posted: Jul 16, 2013 10:18 AM EDT
A latest discovery in South Dakota puts an end to the century's long unending debate among paleontologists about the diet of the most popular and vicious Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Till now paleontologists argued that T. rex was a mere scavenger and not a true predator. But it seems the movies were right to depict him as the villainous predator that chased its prey.
The research team discovered a 1.5 inch crown of a T.rex tooth wedged in the tail of a plant eating dinosaur Hadrosaur that existed some 67 million years ago and roamed in the lands of Western America. They noticed that the backbone had grown over the tooth suggesting that the animal recovered after an encounter with the ferocious T.rex.
Some scientists still argue over the diet of the T.rex stating that they were scavengers feeding on carcasses of dead animals. They got this clue from the scars of bites seen on fossils and footprints.
Dr David Burnham from the University of Kansas, who found the tooth along with a graduate student, said, "The fused vertebrae and embedded tooth are the result of an attack on a live hadrosaur, not the scavenging of a carcass, and represent unequivocal evidence of a predator-prey relationship. We now have conclusive evidence that T-Rex indeed engaged in predatory behaviour. Whereas previously cited fossil evidence, such as isolated tooth marks, might have been easily misconstrued as the result of scavenging behaviour our specimen includes the identities of the prey animal and the attacker, and the fact that the prey was alive when attacked. Moreover, the position of the injury - the tail - suggests that T-Rex could possibly have engaged in pursuit predation.'
In fossil records such evidence is rare as a prey rarely escapes the predator. Apart from this smoking-gun evidence, the researchers found the position of the tooth to be constant with the modern pursuit attacks by predators such as that of the African lions that often chase their prey.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone