Paleontologists Craft Best-Ever Look Of Tyrannosaur's Face With 'Sixth Sense'

Paleontologists reconstructed the best-ever look of the tyrannosaur's face with "sixth sense" based on the 75-million-year-old fossils found in northern Montana and southern Alberta during the Late Cretaceous. They dubbed the new species as Daspletosaurus horneri.

The findings of the discovery were printed in the journal Scientific Reports. The study was led by Thomas Carr, a paleontologist from Carthage College, and other colleagues, according to Ars Technica.

The new species was described by the researchers as having a face covered in flat scales that could be sensitive to touch just like the modern crocodiles. It was about 9 meters long and 2.2 meters tall. It had a large skull covered in bony ridges and various skin types.

The researchers discovered that the lower jaw of tyrannosaur had a neuro vasculature that could also be found in birds. This means that it has a trigeminal nerve that could be found in the faces of animals, which is highly sensitive to vibration, electricity, infrared radiation and even magnetic fields. Jayc Sedlmayr, one of the researchers from the Louisiana State University, said that this nerve could develop into wildly different "sixth senses" in various animals.

Carr explained that trigeminal nerve is evolutionarily significant and notable in scientific studies. He further explained that the public does not ponder that individual nerves or organ systems have each evolutionary history. On the other hand, in their study, it focuses on the evolution of the trigeminal nerve and how it could provide information on how archosaurs, which include the dinosaurs and crocodilians, traversed and intermingled with each other.

Carr placed the D. horneri in the family of tyrannosaur dinosaurs. These also include more than a dozen species that inhabited during the Late Cretaceous period about 66 to 94 million years ago. The name Daspletosaurus horneri is derived from paleontologist Jack Horner, as an honor. The name is practically translated to "Horner's Frightful Lizard," according to Gizmodo.