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The Tyrannosaur Thread- Anything T. rex or tyrannosaurid related

124

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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Scotty's 66 million year journey to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum:

    https://www.cjme.com/2019/04/15/scottys-66-million-year-journey-to-the-royal-sask-museum/?fbclid=IwAR3jK7ITYYEwz229qWF7f6hTUvkhrS5Dp7TKRZo3Alyfc7PQIjsrvJ18JTQ#.XNnKGzDiVgs.facebook
    The 30 years that Scotty lived were a rough three decades, maybe just as violent as in the movies. Similar to how some of today’s animals compete within species for mates or property, T. rexes used to fight each other too.

    Visitors will be able to get a closeup look at, and in some cases touch, some of the injuries that tell the story of Scotty’s life.

    “These include things like big, open wounds on the face that have pierced all the way through to sinus cavities in the skull, holes in the jaw that are probably related to other tyrannosaurs biting the face, (and) a big wound in the tail that may have been a long-term deformity within the tail vertebrae that may have affected how it moved,” said McKellar.

    Scotty-injuries.jpeg


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor




  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Nearly complete T. rex specimen MOR555 (known as the Wankel T. rex or Nation's T. rex) debuts at the Smithsonian museum.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/after-66-million-years-a-t-rex-makes-its-grand-debut/2019/05/31/b64d56e4-c62f-4265-8be1-ca1c04d84856_video.html?fbclid=IwAR3z-AZPknn3coPM3ZBfHcoZiZaxyFN7Sajwlc3InmF9f-0VS2eq8GYfWkU&noredirect=on&p9w22b2p=b2p22p9w00098&utm_term=.60791fddc4be

    xYs2mXi.jpg


    This specimen was 18 years old when it died (having just reached adulthood), and was 11.6 m long. It is known for being the first T. rex specimen for which a complete arm was known.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,538 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Adam Khor wrote: »
    It is known for being the first T. rex specimen for which a complete arm was known.
    So the others were mostly 'armless ? :pac:


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    [/INDENT]
    So the others were mostly 'armless ? :pac:

    :D:D:D


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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    "Family group" find suggests tyrannosaurs (or some of them at least) may have been social animals:

    https://www.ksl.com/article/46580183/tyrannosaurus-a-social-creature

    Teratophoneus_curriei_adult_and_juvenile_2_salt_lake_city.jpg

    Note that this story is being repeated by the media as if concerning Tyrannosaurus itself, but the find is from the Kaiparowits fossil site, which predates Tyrannosaurus by several million years.

    The tyrannosaurid previously found at this site is the smaller but closely related Teratophoneus ("monstrous murderer") which may or may not be ancestral to Tyrannosaurus proper.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Study analyzes the stable isotopes on T. rex's close relative Tarbosaurus' tooth enamel to figure out what it was feeding on. The results indicate that its main prey would've consisted of hadrosaurs (such as Saurolophus) and sauropods of several kinds. The study concludes that Tarbosaurus "sat at the top of the food pyramid" which is... nothing surprising, considering that it is the largest carnivorous dinosaur from that particular time and place.

    https://phys.org/news/2019-06-tooth-enamel-analyses-insights-diet.html

    5d1371d956141.jpg

    May as well mention that evidence of Tarbosaurus feeding on fellow giant theropod Deinocheirus is also known, thus making it clear that, unsurprisingly, Tarbosaurus was feeding on pretty much every other large dinosaur in its environment.

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667112000572

    Tarbosaurus may have been responsible for eating most of the original Deinocheirus specimen, leaving only a few bits and pieces (including the legendary arms) to mistify paleontologists from 1965 to 2009, when new Deinocheirus remains were finally identified.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Possible tyrannosaur track found in China:

    http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-07/29/c_138267706.htm

    http://www.uua.cn/show-10-9726-1.html

    20190730101230911.jpg

    The track is seemingly the right size and age that it could have been left by the tyrannosaurid Qianzhousaurus (probably a synonym of Alioramus), whose fossil remains were previously found in the region.

    crop-611680-qianzhousaurus-sinensis.jpg


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,165 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    So I was at the Witte museum yesterday with my juvenile paleontologist (it’s gone well beyond a “phase” now), and they had a picture of T Rex with feathers.

    I’m sorry. I am fully aware that dinos were more feathered than we had believed for years, but a 5 ton chicken is just... wrong.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    So I was at the Witte museum yesterday with my juvenile paleontologist (it’s gone well beyond a “phase” now), and they had a picture of T Rex with feathers.

    I’m sorry. I am fully aware that dinos were more feathered than we had believed for years, but a 5 ton chicken is just... wrong.

    There is a lot of disinformation doing the rounds right now, especially online, regarding T. rex's life appearance. The most recent culprit is a documentary called The Real T. rex with Chris Packham, which somehow managed to convince a lot of people that we know a lot more about T. rex than we actually do, including that it could not roar and that it was covered on feathers (including orange "eyebrows").

    MV5BZmQ1YmYyZjEtMjVlNy00NjgwLThhMmItODY1MTZkOWMwZjA5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzAyMjQyODE@._V1_.jpg

    The bare truth is that we have absolutely no evidence of T. rex being feathered. No trace of feathering has been found thus far with any T. rex specimen. Skin impressions of T. rex HAVE been found, and they show what appears to be a covering of small scales:

    cc_Tyranno-skin-1Credit-Amanda-Kelley_16x9.jpg?itok=Cj7zudp_

    The problem is that these skin impressions are very small, and so people often argue that there may have been feathering in other parts of the animal's body; for example, the back and the neck.

    Thing is we have skin impressions from several other tyrannosaurids, closely related to T. rex- such as Tarbosaurus, Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus and Daspletosaurus- and these come from several parts of the body. Seeing as these animals are very closely related to T. rex, it seems logical to assume that if they were scaly all over, as suggested by the skin impressions, then T. rex probably was too.

    Here's a composite of the skin samples known from several tyrannosaurids and where they come from in the animal's body:

    Tyrannosaur_skin_impressions-lite.jpg

    So why do many people insist on T. rex being feathered? Thing is a few years ago, two theropods were discovered in China that had extensive impressions of feathering. These are Dilong and Yutyrannus. Dilong was a small animal, less than 2 m long, whereas Yutyrannus was pretty large, maybe up to 8 or 9 m long.

    169ef030b2e8b3078a382e5b89b5261b.jpg

    When the skeletons were analyzed it turned out they belonged to the group of the tyrannosauroids- a broad term for several families of presumably related theropods that include the Tyrannosauridae family (and T. rex with it). This of course led paleontologists to suggests that if these distant T. rex relatives were feathered, then T. rex probably was too. But this was before the skin samples from T. rex and other tyrannosaurids became well known.

    In reality there's a 58 million year breach between these early tyrannosauroids and T. rex- that's comparable to the breach between humans and the earliest known primates. A lot can happen in 58 million years. Dilong and Yutyrannus are not classified as part of the Tyrannosauridae family, but tentatively considered as part of the Proceratosauridae. So they are not as close to T. rex as often implied by the supporters of the feathered T. rex hypothesis.

    All in all, there's no evidence or reason thus far to assume that T. rex was feathered. There is a possibility that its ancestors were, and many paleontologists believe that the very youngest T. rex hatchlings possibly had some sort of fuzz to keep warm while small, but since no T. rex or hatchlings or nests of any sort have been found thus far, we can only wait for future discoveries.


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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Who owns the Dueling Dinos?

    The fate of one of the most spectacular dinosaur fossil finds in the history of paleontology will be decided by the Montana Supreme Court. Hopefully it will end up in a museum. The fossil includes two dinosaurs- a tyrannosaurid and a ceratopsid, extremely well preserved (even with skin impressions).

    The tyrannosaurid in particular has been the object of debate due to the suggestion that it may represent the first complete specimen of "Nanotyrannus", a potential second species of tyrannosaurid from the Hell Creek Formation. If confirmed to be something other than a juvenile T. rex, it would be huge news, as no other tyrannosaurid is known to have coexisted with the latter thus far, and there is a prevalent belief that after the extinction of Albertosaurus, T. rex monopolized the apex predator niche in western North America for the remainder of the Cretaceous and up to the KT extinction.
    As for the ceratopsid, it has been suggested to be a new species as well.

    https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/who-owns-the-dueling-dinos--montana-supreme-court-to-decide-66141

    5bf4ad7809ddc.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Previously assigned to be an undetermined species of Daspletosaurus, CMN 11315, a tyrannosaurid specimen from Alberta, Canada, turns out to be just another Albertosaurus sarcophagus. under more detailed analysis. The specimen was problematic because it considerably inflated the longevity of genus Daspletosaurus.
    Tyrannosauridae is rife with examples of species that have been coined on the basis of undiagnostic immature material, which has often led to overestimates of diversity (...)

    To date, A. sarcophagus remains the only unequivocally identified tyrannosaurid species from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ar.24199

    Daspletosaurus-twoguysfossils.jpg


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    T. rex had "air conditioner" in its head, study suggests

    The dorsotemporal fenestrae in T. rex's skull, believed for years to have been occupied by muscle, actually held a blood vessel system meant to regulate the head's temperature, similar to the one found in crocodilians today.

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/special-skull-windows-helped-dinosaurs-keep-their-brains-keep-cool-180973036/

    tyrannosaurus-rex-head-thermal-image_770.jpg

    AAGNGcS.img?h=362&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIkqLAuz2EI


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    "Victoria", a newly announced, apparently privately-owned specimen, is the second most complete T. rex known, and likely died of a nasty infection following a bite on the jaw by another T. rex.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/12/world/victoria-t-rex-fossil-scn/index.html

    She was less than 30 years old when she died, lending credence to the idea that T. rex didn´t live much longer than that due to their violent intraspecific behavior.
    Victoria was severely bitten on the jaw by another T. rex and the mouth infection that followed encompassed both jaws, likely killing her before she could reach adulthood. This type of infection often leads to sepsis, the researchers said.

    David Hone, a senior lecturer and director of the biology program at Queen Mary University of London, is like the investigator of a Cretaceous crime scene.
    He's been studying the bite marks to understand what happened, how they lived and who was feeding on who.
    The nature of Victoria's injuries are unusual. Although there are many past examples of tyrannosaur fossils showcasing stages of injury and healing, the location of Victoria's are right on the front of the lower jaw.

    Hone said he's never seen a major injury in this location before. But it's clear that the attack came from another T. rex. There's only one creature with big teeth that could rip up the face of a T. rex, and that's another one.

    17820885_web1_190723-VNE-Dinolab3edited.jpg

    190912142342-01-victoria-the-t-rex-super-tease.jpg

    190912142333-02-victoria-the-t-rex-exlarge-169.jpg


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor




  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor




  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    How to tell juvenile Daspletosaurus from juvenile Gorgosaurus (free paper):


    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53591-7.pdf


    41598_2019_53591_Fig1_HTML.png


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Jinbeisaurus, another smallish, early-ish tyrannosauroid, similar to the aforementioned Suskityrannus, but from China.

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667119301909


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Yet another nail in "Nanotyrannus"' coffin. This study on T.rex growth rate suggests all "Nanotyrannus" specimens are really juvenile T. rex, making Tyrannosaurusthe only known surviving tyrannosaurid in North America's latest Cretaceous.

    The study also shows that T. rex would stop growing if food was scarce, and resume growth when conditions improved, something we also see with modern crocodiles.

    Free paper:

    https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/1/eaax6250/tab-pdf

    010220_sp_t-rex_feat-1028x579.jpg

    But still no eggs, embryos or hatchlings known. u-u


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    New tyrannosaur, Thanatotheristes, from late Cretaceous Canada. It appears to be most closely related to Daspletosaurus. The name means "death reaper".

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667119303611

    EPAGYn7UUAAckMc.jpg


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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    A new family name, Stokesosauridae, has been erected for a group of tyrannosauroids including Juratyrant, Stokesosaurus and Eotyrannus.

    https://www.mapress.com/j/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4755.1.13

    These animals lived during the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous and were normally smaller than the later tyrannosaurids.

    340?cb=20130325135147&path-prefix=es

    So technically they are not tyrannosaurids, but because I've posted news on tyrannosauroids in general here (other than megaraptorans which have their own thread), I'll just keep posting about them here unless there's many important Stokesosaurid discoveries in the future.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    A parasite similar to Trichomonas, which affects modern day birds, may have killed famous T. rex "Sue" and been frequent among tyrannosaurs and possibly other giant theropods. Article is in Czech.

    https://dinosaurusblog.com/2020/04/02/tyranosauri-trichomonoza/

    800px-T._rex_infection.png


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    The study isn´t only about tyrannosaurids, but it does analyze the walk and run efficiency and speed of several kinds of theropods, and finds tyrannosaurids as the most efficient walkers. This compliments previous studies which suggest tyrannosaurids were not necessarily fast runners, but were seemingly more agile and maneuverable than other giant theropods, possibly an adaptation to hunting faster and less cumbersome prey (ceratopsids, hadrosaurs, rather than sauropods for example).

    https://phys.org/news/2020-05-rex-legs-marathon.html

    trexslongleg.jpg


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Spectacular "Dueling Dinos" fossil (which includes an as of yet unidentified tyrannosaurid and ceratopsid, possibly Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, but still unconfirmed), may soon be sold to a Museum after US court rules that fossils belong to land owners.
    The Montana Supreme Court this week ruled that fossils are not legally the same as minerals such as gold or copper. Therefore, Montana fossils, including a dramatic specimen of two dinosaurs buried together, belong to people who own the land where they are found, rather than to the owners of the minerals underneath that land.

    The four-to-three decision upholds the way U.S. scientists have long approached questions of fossil ownership. It appears to defuse a potentially explosive 2018 ruling by the federal Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that fossils went to the owners of mineral rights.

    The fossil includes two apparently mostly complete dinosaurs, a smallish tyrannosaurid (initially claimed to be Nanotyrannus, and considered important in solving the Nanotyrannus vs juvenile Tyrannosaurus debate), as well as a ceratopsid. Despite the name, the dinos were likely not dueling at the moment of death, their closeness being instead an artifact of taphonomy.

    5bf4ad7809ddc.image.jpg?crop=1175%2C1175%2C294%2C0&resize=1200%2C1200&order=crop%2Cresize

    800.jpeg


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    New study on Tyrannosaurus rex ontogeny.

    https://peerj.com/articles/9192/

    The study confirms previous suggestion that T. rex went from a gracile, shallow snouted juvenile morph to a massive, robust one as it aged, reaching sexual maturity at around 13 and surpassing the size of other tyrannosaurids by age 15, although there was individual variation meaning the largest and most massive adults were not necessarily the oldest. No evidence of sexual dimorphism is found, and the mysterious "Tyrannosaurus X" once suggested as a different species is found to be Tyrannosaurus rex.

    fig-26-2x.jpg


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    A history of Tyrannosaurus rex museum displays, very interesting read.

    https://extinctmonsters.net/2020/06/15/displaying-the-tyrant-king-redux/


    trex2.jpg?w=500&h=447


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Interesting comparison between the skull of an adult Tyrannosaurus and a juvenile, seen from above. The skull of the juvenile is not unlike that of most other theropods, quite narrow laterally and better suited to a fast, scissor-like bite; only as adults they had their famously devastating, bone-crushing bite.

    105916790_2133183153473579_2070387999328864775_o.jpg?_nc_cat=107&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=nCYlO5k1ZgYAX8ry5xE&_nc_ht=scontent.fgdl5-3.fna&_nc_tp=6&oh=4cadb4c85ee2dfbdde5036c6788ad6f1&oe=5F1A118C


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Interesting article on whether you'd be able to escape a T. rex running (answer is both yes and no)

    https://www.wired.com/story/how-outrun-dinosaur/

    The-Lost-World-Jurassic-Park-Rex-attacks-Camp-e1564863340662.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&h=370


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor




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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Famous T. rex specimen "Stan" to be auctioned. They hope it will be sold for around 8 million USD. Naturally, paleontologists are already divided over this, some complaining about such a great specimen going to private hands, others arguing that the specimen is not new and has been studied already for many years anyway.

    https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/stan-t-rex-skeleton-auction-scli-intl-scn/index.html

    https://www.news18.com/news/world/an-auction-house-with-good-bones-stan-the-t-rex-is-for-sale-2883109.html


    Stan is considered to be the fifth most complete T. rex in the world, at around 70%. It is most notorious however for having the best preserved and most complete skull of any T. rex. It was likely a male (going by its narrow pelvis) and around 11.7 m long and 6-7 tons in life.

    Stan_the_Trex_at_Manchester_Museum.jpg


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