Finally: Actual physical evidence that T-rex was a predator

It look like the most badass predator to have ever roamed the Earth , but palaeontologist have struggled to prove that Tyrannosaurus rex actually hunted its fair game , leading some to trust that it was a scavenger . Now , the uncovering of a T - rex tooth embedded in the tail of a hadrosaur offers the first direct grounds .

That T - rex may have beena scavengerisn’t as mad a theory as it might appear ; this is really a longstanding debate that goes back nearly a century .

Was Tyrannosaurus Rex a horrendous predator or just another scavenger ?

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Paleontologists have expose tons of osseous tissue with tooth pull and puncture marks that would indicate predatory attack , but these markings are hard to impute to a specific theropod . What ’s more , some of these tooth fool could have been made on carcase .

Yetother theorieshave mull over that there were too many Tyrannosaurus rex for the species to outlast on hunt alone ; it was more like a hyena than a cheetah or a lion , get to bank on opportunistic alimentation to sate their appetites given their relative abundance .

Some even suspect it was acannibal , or that it wasa bully that preyed on smaller dinosaurs .

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http://io9.com/5665574/tyrannosaurus-rex-was-a-cannibal-says-paleontologists

T Rex ’s Hunting Habits Disappoint Fans Of Carnage

But owe to a find made at a site in South Dakota by paleontologist David Burnham and his alum scholarly person Robert DePalma , we now have it away that T - rex did indeed hound its prey .

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The scientist base a Tyrannosaurus male monarch tooth lodged in the tail vertebrae of a industrial plant - use up hadrosaur ( sometimes come to to as the “ duck - billed dinosaur ” ) . Moreover , their analysis of the fossil showed that there was saucy osseous tissue growth palisade the tooth , an indication that the duck-billed dinosaur hold up the fire .

base on their analysis , the encounter likely happened in the Late Cretaceous about 66 million twelvemonth ago . After the attack , bone grew over the wound , fusing the two vertebrae together . This healing process would have likely take several class , so the herbivore lived long after the close call .

mental image : CT scans express cross - sections of the vertebra . The tear - shaped object at bottom is the tooth , with bone growth wrap it . deferred payment : PNAS / Burnham et al .

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But not everyone is excited — or win over — by this finding . In fact , paleontologist John Hutchinson say this is a non - issue as far as the science is refer , and that this is more media ballyhoo than anything else . The whole “ marauder vs. scavenger ” debate , he says , has distracted the populace from more crucial tilt in paleontology .

Here ’s hisunedited responseto Matt Kaplan of Nature News :

I discover this very inauspicious . It is not like scientists ride around cancel their heads in puzzlement over the question , or debate it unceasingly in scientific meetings . Virtually any paleontologist who knows about the biota of extant marrow - feeder and the fossil evidence of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs accepts that T. rex was both a marauder and magpie ; it was a carnivore like most any other kind that has ever been know to subsist .

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While the discovery is nice evidence , it is not peculiarly exciting in a scientific sense and is only one isolated ingredient from mintage that lived for hundreds of thousands of year , which to me changes nothing and permit no generalizations about the biology of any species , only the statement that at one point in clip a Tyrannosaurus bit a hadrosaurus that survived the clash . There is no real substance to the controversy that T. rex was “ either ” a piranha or scavenger . It is just something that scientists drum up now and then to get media attention . I hope that soon we can move on to more pressing interrogation about the biological science of extinct creature , but the spiritualist take to discern that this is just ballyhoo and they are being play in a rather foolish agency ; also scientists that still find this is an exciting interrogative need to move on . Maybe this specimen will appropriate that . But somehow my cynical side leads me to suspect that this “ controversy ” will just persevere because citizenry need it to , regardless of system of logic or evidence .

Great galloping lizards , I am so tired of this nonsense . Maybe there is educational value in picture how skill address with provocative half - baked estimate about fame species , but scientist in the community of interests call for to speak up and say what the real skill is about . It ’s not about this “ controversy ” . forward-looking palaeontology is so much serious than this .

Two thing I ’ll say about Hutchinson ’s ranting .

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First , I totally buy the argument that T - rex was in all probability both a predator and an opportunistic feeder . Why not ? A monster like that could pretty much do as it pleases , both as a hunter and as a creature that fed on any refuse it could find , quickly dispatch any other animal who would dare encroach on its easy meal .

secondly , Burnham and DePalma ’s discovery is nerveless — no two ways about it . The fact of the matter is that it ’s sincerely the first verbatim physical evidence of T - rex ’s predatory leaning . And irrespective of the ensuing “ media plug , ” it ’s still science — and it ’s still important .

Meet T - Rex ’s Diminutive Ancestor

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