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The Tyrannosaur Thread- Anything T. rex or tyrannosaurid related

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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.

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭Adam Khor




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭Adam Khor




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭Adam Khor


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

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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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

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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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.

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭Adam Khor




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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Famous T. rex specimen Stan has been sold by the ridiculous sum of US$27.5 million, making it the most expensive dinosaur specimen ever ("Sue", another T. rex, was sold by US$8.3 million back in 1997). Stan was expected to sell for a similar amount.
    The buyer has not been revealed yet.

    https://www.barrons.com/articles/christies-sells-stan-the-t-rex-for-27-5m-01602036284?fbclid=IwAR2eOaMDsOe57WP1kQ0itBdp1a6JmhCezVFt1_6FRLxUW8Ed0TUZliApAvU

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭Adam Khor


    First hatchling/embryo remains of a tyrannosaur identified! This is big news, as the fossil record of these creatures is rich in adult and large juvenile individuals, but we know next to nothing about their earliest growth stages.
    "These are incredibly rare finds — the first of their kind in the world," lead researcher Gregory Funston, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, told Live Science in an email. "Juvenile tyrannosaurs of any kind are exceedingly rare, and we've never found any bones that we suspected might be embryos, until now."

    The teensy, 1.1-inch-long (2.9 centimeters) tyrannosaur jawbone still sports eight little teeth. Because it was stuck in the surrounding rock, the researchers scanned the jawbone with a particle accelerator, which let them image the fossil without excavating it. Despite the jawbone's miniature size, "it looks surprisingly like other juvenile tyrannosaurid jaws," Funston said. "It has a deep groove on the inside and a distinct chin, which are both features that distinguish tyrannosaurs from other meat-eating dinosaurs."

    These features helped convince other paleontologists that the jawbone truly is from a tyrannosaur — "we can know that these features can be used to identify tyrannosaurs no matter how immature they are,"



    jqJheRWZqkWUtpDNud87eC-970-80.jpg.webp

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    No eggs or egg shells associated with tyrannosaurs have ever been found, which has led to the suggestion that tyrannosaurs may have laid soft-shelled eggs, like those of turtles or snakes, instead of hard-shelled like those of birds. Other dinosaurs (such as Protoceratops and Mussaurus) are already known to have laid soft-shelled eggs.

    The newborn tyrannosaur would've had a skull around 9 cm long (average skull length for house cats is around 9-10 cm).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Famous T. rex "Sue" had deformed teeth due to parasitic infection, suffered great pain at the end of its life, study suggests:

    https://www.livescience.com/sue-t-rex-terrible-teeth.html

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    The infection is believed to have been a prehistoric version of trichomoniasis, a disease that also affects modern day birds.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Famous "Dueling Dinos" (which likely did not die dueling), until now in private hands, is now finally available for scientific study, and there's some tantalizing clues that the tyrannosaur may not in fact be Tyrannosaurus rex, despite coming from a fossil site (Hell's Creek Formation) where only T. rex had been confirmed among tyrannosaurids/giant theropods.

    [IMG][/img]julaug2017_b05_hellcreekdinos.jpg

    According to paleontologists Peter Larson and Gregory Paul, the tyrannosaur found fossilized along with a ceratopsid has huge arms and fingers, proportionally, far beyond what one would expect from a juvenile tyrannosaurid. Paul goes as far as to suggest that it may actually be a dryptosaurid, a member of a different linneage that evolved in Appalachia (eastern North America) and known until now from only incomplete remains. We know dryptosaurids, unlike tyrannosaurids, had large and robust arms with large claws.

    If confirmed, this would be proof that a) Tyrannosaurus rex was not the only large theropod in Hell Creek, and b) the Appalachian dryptosaurids managed to reach Laramidia (now western North America) and met their small armed tyrannosaurid cousins at the end of the Cretaceous before both went extinct.

    If it does turn out to be a dryptosaurid, it will be the first good look at one since the discovery of Dryptosaurus' fragmentary remains in 1866...

    Dryptosaurus-Frederik-Spindler_3caf.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭Adam Khor


    The embryo tyrannosaur fossils are on the news.

    Although fragmentary, they show baby tyrannosaurs would've been around 1 m long at birth, making them the largest known hatchlings among dinosaurs, and that they would have looked quite like smaller versions of the adults, down to the distinctive "chin" on the lower jaw.

    The remains of the eggs have not been found which has prompted some paleontologists to suggest that tyrannosaurs laid soft-shelled eggs, making their preservation more difficult. However, they estimate a baby tyrannosaur would've hatched from an egg around 43 cm long.

    The genus/species of the hatchlings is not known.

    https://www.cnet.com/news/baby-tyrannosaur-dinosaurs-were-the-size-of-dogs-fossil-fragments-show/

    tyrannosaurus-juvie_01_202010161610.jpg

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭Adam Khor




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,279 ✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Bitten bone fossils from New Mexico add to the evidence of tyrannosaur cannibalism:

    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348002335_NEW_EVIDENCE_FOR_CANNIBALISM_IN_TYRANNOSAURID_DINOSAURS_FROM_THE_UPPER_CRETACEOUS_CAMPANIANMAASTRICHTIAN_SAN_JUAN_BASIN_OF_NEW_MEXICO

    1428609269-tyran-2.jpg

    Apparently whether the other tyrannosaur was dead or alive mattered little.


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