Even Tyrannosaurus rex missed a meal now and then, paleontologists report Monday, noting the discovery of a big tooth left in the tail of a plant-eating dinosaur.
Some 40 feet long at full size, T. rex was surely a fearsome beast, famed for its massive jaws, but how much of its diet consisted of captured prey as opposed to scavenged has remained unclear. But this discovery shows T. rex tried to take a bite out of a live hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur, and lost a tooth in the process, says the tooth discovery team led by Robert DePalma of the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History, in Fort Lauderdale.
"We now have conclusive evidence that T. rex indeed engaged in predatory behavior," they say in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. Looking at two healed tail bones of the roughly 66 million-year-old hadrosaur uncovered at the Hell Creek site in South Dakota, the team reports the discovery of a T. rex tooth — "indistinguishable," from ones in the fossilized skulls of other T. rex specimens — lodged therein. This hadrosaur managed to escape from T. rex and keep a souvenir, a dagger-like tooth crown about 1.5 inches tall and 1 inch wide, the discovery team reports.
Modern predators, such as wolves and lions, lose their prey 45% to 62% of the time too, notes the study. So, T. rex can still hold its head high.
Read more http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2013/07/15/tyrannosaur-tooth/2517695/
Some 40 feet long at full size, T. rex was surely a fearsome beast, famed for its massive jaws, but how much of its diet consisted of captured prey as opposed to scavenged has remained unclear. But this discovery shows T. rex tried to take a bite out of a live hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur, and lost a tooth in the process, says the tooth discovery team led by Robert DePalma of the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History, in Fort Lauderdale.
"We now have conclusive evidence that T. rex indeed engaged in predatory behavior," they say in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. Looking at two healed tail bones of the roughly 66 million-year-old hadrosaur uncovered at the Hell Creek site in South Dakota, the team reports the discovery of a T. rex tooth — "indistinguishable," from ones in the fossilized skulls of other T. rex specimens — lodged therein. This hadrosaur managed to escape from T. rex and keep a souvenir, a dagger-like tooth crown about 1.5 inches tall and 1 inch wide, the discovery team reports.
Modern predators, such as wolves and lions, lose their prey 45% to 62% of the time too, notes the study. So, T. rex can still hold its head high.
Read more http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2013/07/15/tyrannosaur-tooth/2517695/