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[Lizard with a ladder]

A fossil tooth found buried inside the healed tailbones of a duckbill dinosaur suggests the animal survived a close encounter with a Tyrannosaurus rex about 65 million years ago, according to a new study.

Scientists say the embedded tooth, discovered in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana, is the first conclusive proof that T. rex was not just a scavenger, but also a predator that hunted and killed prey.

"It's not just a smoking gun—we've actually found the bullet," said study co-author Peter Larson, a paleontologist at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in South Dakota.

But not everyone agrees. Jack Horner, a paleontologist at Montana State University who has long argued that T. rex was incapable of hunting healthy adult prey, remains unconvinced.

"It's one data point, and that's the least amount of data you can have," said Horner, who was not involved in the research.

Scavenger or Killer?

A long-running debate about T. rex concerns whether it was an "obligate scavenger"—surviving solely on the flesh of dead animals—or whether it was an active predator that hunted prey.

The fossil evidence has been inconclusive on this matter. That's because while dinosaur bones and even fossilized skin have been found with tooth marks linked to T. rex, it's impossible to conclusively prove whether an animal was alive or dead when it was bitten.

"If a T. rex bit a bone of an animal that was already dead, that mark looks identical to what would be made on an animal that it just killed," said lead author Robert DePalma, a paleontologist at Florida's Palm Beach Museum of Natural History.

So instead of relying solely on bite marks, some scientists have tried to determine T. rex's feeding style by analyzing its physical and sensory attributes.

Paleontologists such as Horner have concluded that T. rex was not only too slow to chase down prey, its arms were too puny and its eyesight was too poor for it to successfully attack or chase down a healthy adult animal. At best, T. rex could have chased down lame, young, or weak animals, but otherwise it lived on carrion, Horner said.

"My argument has always been that T. rex is [an opportunist] like a hyena," he added.

End of Debate?

But DePalma and his team say the T. rex tooth, which measures about 1.5 inches (3.75 centimeters) long, solidly refutes that idea. "It puts the debate to rest," DePalma said.

The fact that the bitten duckbill dinosaur—also known as a hadrosaur—managed to escape suggests it was more than a match for its pursuer, he argued, and thus unlikely to have been young, weak, or handicapped.

"We can tell [the T. rex] bit a living animal because the two vertebrae were infected and then fused together," DePalma said. "So it's unmistakable that the tooth was in there before the animal died."

Also, the location of the injury—near the tip of the duckbill's tail—suggests T. rex was pursuing the animal when it was bitten. "The fact that the injury is on the hindquarters of the animal is actually not surprising," DePalma said. "If you examine Kalahari lions, for example, they will attack the hindquarters of their victims to immobilize them and then they'll go in for the kill."

To identify the animal the tooth belonged to, DePalma and his team extracted it from the tailbones and made detailed measurements. "The morphology is unmistakable for T. rex," DePalma said. "It could not be mistaken for any other carnivorous species."

The tooth's size and shape indicates it came from the T. rex's lower jaw, and its loss likely did not affect the creature in any significant way.

"Like sharks and lizards, T. rexes kept replacing their teeth throughout their entire lives," DePalma explained.

"That tooth would have been replaced in a matter of months, and it would have been sharper than ever."

More at link

lock if old

 

[revolverjgw]

Why are scientists on a neverending crusade to try to make dinosaurs less and less cool?

 

[strafer]

Paleantologists - Ruining childhoods since 2001

 

[triplestation]

i think its fucked up that the t rex had such little arms

what kind of design is that i thought nature makes shit to be optimal

 

[strafer]

 

[peaceiscloser]

Fuck Jack Horner. He must have time traveled and a T. rex ate his girlfriend or something, that's gotta be why he's got this vendetta against the Tyrant King.

This is good news. Vivat REX! (Well, long live his legacy)

 

[antonz]

In recent years Horner has backed off the scavenger thing quite a bit and now claims he said it just to challenge the status quo and make people think of other ideas.

 

[tuffy]

I don't see how a T. Rex tooth in a duckbill tail is incompatible with a T. Rex being a hyena-like opportunist. It may be that the T. Rex was both scavenger and predator.

 

[Mike M]

Isn't #TeamScavenger pretty much nobody but Horner in the first place?

 

[TriniTrin]

Is Horner the guy in Jurassic Park 2 that gets eaten by the t-rex because a snake goes into his shirt? I always thought that was him for some reason LOL

 

[strafer]

Is Horner the guy in Jurassic Park 2 that gets eaten by the t-rex because a snake goes into his shirt? I always thought that was him for some reason LOL

He is based on him so in a sense, yes.

 

[jiggle]

a dwarf dino

 

[WorldStar]

In recent years Horner has backed off the scavenger thing quite a bit and now claims he said it just to challenge the status quo and make people think of other ideas.

link?

 

[shinobi602]

 

[cdyhybrid]

I always thought it would eat whatever it came across. If it found something living, great, but it would scavenge if needed.

 

[peaceiscloser]

In recent years Horner has backed off the scavenger thing quite a bit and now claims he said it just to challenge the status quo and make people think of other ideas.

Well if this is the case then, I can probably forgive the man. Devil's advocate is always good in science, and if anything it pushed paleontologists to further research the hunting capabilities of Tyrannosaurus.

I was reading something about T. rex also possibly being a pack hunter, with the faster juveniles working as fast shock units to disable the prey, with the larger rexes coming in to finish the job with their overwhelming size and strength. So amazing, I never even considered a situation like that.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/326451

 

[jmdajr]

is this real?

awesome if so!

 

[strafer]

is this real?

awesome if so!

Yes it's him.

 

[Graphics Horse]

At least we can rule out it being vegetarian.

 

[peaceiscloser]

At least we can rule out it being vegetarian.

 

[DedValve]

I was living in ignorant bliss before this fucking thread came along...you know what, that tooth mark IS undeniable proof. T-rex is not only a predator but THE Apex Predator. Only humans with our intelligence can compare and even we are dwarfed by their speed, stregth and heatseeking abilities.

Spoiler

please allow me this thought, t-rexes being gods among hunters is my childhood ;_;

 

[Toxi]

We've known T. Rex was a predator for years now. A creature of that size simply can't be a scavenger; it would never be able to find enough food to sustain itself. The only pure tetrapod scavengers are vultures, and they require much less food and have the advantage of flight to find new carcasses.

It's likely that, like modern hyenas or lions, T. Rex just ate what it could find, and both of those animals hunt for prey. Its amazing sense of smell was certainly useful in finding carcasses, but it would still have to hunt for meat to keep itself fed.

 

[Subitai]

I think it is both like a Hyena, but no one gives Hyenas credit for their fantastic hunting prowess. They just don't use it as much because it uses more calories than hunting. I mean their stomach acid is strong enough to digest bone. Still usually, it is Lions coming in and taking Hyena kills rather than the other way around just due to size of male Lions like Bears with Wolves in NA. Actually, I recall reading Crichton pointing that out in the beginning of the Lost World somewhere.

 

[zeitgeist]

For some reason I thought this was going to be a thread about comparing the T. Rex to the Predator/ A scavenger (which I assumed was a movie monster I hadn't heard of) to see which was the best.

 

[diggmcbadass]

For some reason I thought this was going to be a thread about comparing the T. Rex to the Predator/ A scavenger (which I assumed was a movie monster I hadn't heard of) to see which was the best.

I read it as "T.Rex, Predator/Schwarzengger". I'm a lot more disappointed.

 

[Kard8p3]

For some reason I thought this was going to be a thread about comparing the T. Rex to the Predator/ A scavenger (which I assumed was a movie monster I hadn't heard of) to see which was the best.

Yeah...same here.

A better title would have been T-Rex: Predator, or Scavenger?