Sue: The Best T-Rex Yet

[Tom Mattson]

I thought these lonely forums could use some traffic.

 

In Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History resides the largest, best-preserved T-Rex skeleton ever found., named Sue. The restoration was done just off the main lobby so that visitors could see, which was kind of cool (I was there).

 

When I went back in Nov. 2001, she was standing up at full height on exhibit.

 

Check it out:

 

http://www.fmnh.org/sue/default.htm

 

Tom

[blike]

I'd love to be able to see a dinosaur skeleton in person.

 

This is kind of OT, but I saw an interesting show on discovery that presented the theory that t-rex was a scavenger, not a predator. It kinda shocked me, since the idea that t-rex was a beastly hunter has been pounded into my head for years (read jarassic park 1-3). I guess hollywood isn't a good place to base facts on

 

The main support behind this theory is t-rex's tiny arms. If t-rex was a predator, it would have to do a lot of running. One fall would probably mortally wound the creature because it had nothing with which to break its fall. Also, the teeth seemed to be designed to tear through rough cartilage and bone, which is usually all thats left for scavengers.

 

The link you provided says, "Both of T. rex's eyes faced forward, much like yours. This means it had depth perception--it could tell how far away something was." The optic region of the brain is quite small though, according to skull casts. The olfactory region is well developed though, which indicates it had a great sense of smell. Your link says "Scientists believe that T. rex had a very keen sense of smell." Poor site and great smell would be more keen to a scavenger than a predator according to some. I'm kinda sceptical we can make assumptions about its sight based on skull casts.

 

This is all the evidence I've read. They have a case, but I'd still like T-rex to be some vicious killer

[Skye]

It probably did a bit of both, there're few predators that won't eat carrion and there're few scavengers that won't hunt vulnerable prey.

[Radical Edward]

If it did hunt, then lots of its targets were probably fairly slow too...

 

how big was it's brain by the way? I heard years ago now, ehat even these monstrosities onls had brains the siye of a walnut... which is fairly suprising.

[blike]

It said in the article a foot in length, but that size doesn't always correlate with intelligence.

[Skye]

Well how fast do dinosaurs run anyway? Alot of the big ones would have been slow, they have the same problems that T rex had (supporting a massive body). Maybe T rex attacked them in the water, kangaroos have a similar body form and are good swimmers...it's dangerous for a dog to follow them into the water. Just trying to give Blike some hope;)

[aman]

I can't imagine T-Rex's hopping foot to foot like in some of the animation. Elephants always have a foot in contact with the ground when they run to smooth the travel. Then I've seen rhinos hop a bit in a charge. Footprints would be useful.

Just aman

[Glider]

Yes, but elephants have four 'knees' (i.e. all their legs bend in the middle, and to the rear) unlike other animals which have 'knees' in their front legs (wrists actualy) and hocks in their back legs (actually the heel; calcanium and achilles tendon), allowing their back legs to bend forwards. This is what allows them to jump, and gallop. Due to their leg conformation, elephants can neither jump nor gallop. T-Rex on the other hand has its toes on the ground, its heel (calcanium and achilles tendon) mid way up, providing leverage and power, and its knee joint close to its body with a short thigh. I suppose the best modern analogy for legs like that would be something like a bird (e.g. the road runner); toes on the ground and spread, a hock high up and a short thigh. All the muscle mass high up and below the knee nothing but tendons and ligaments, acting as springs to amplify the muscle power.

[Skye]

Based on muscle mass T rex probably couldn't run (it would need something like 86% of it's muscle mass in it's legs to do so) and would have walked up to about 20 km/h from here

Interestingly, an Allosaurus fossil skeleton was found to have 14 fractured ribs that had healed, perhaps meaning they often did fall and injure themselves. Allosaurs weighed around half as much a the T rex, and had more substantial arms, so certainly didn't have as much force exerted on their body if they fell.

[Guest exo]

I think you're right about a 6 ton adult tyrannosaurus not being able to run fast, but a young one could. Recently a juvinille Tarbosaur was found in asia and it's shins were considerably longer in relation to those of an adult, making it generally better suited to sprint. The arguement over the tyronnosaur's ability or inability to run has been a fucus on the hunter/ scavenger debate since it arrose. I personally believe that in the course of the animal's life, it lived two very different lives.

 

When young, it could actively chase down prey, (it's forward facing eyes would've been more useful in this stage too) while as an adult, it's sense of smell would lead it to a dead or dying food source. When you're the biggest predator in an ecosystem, you pretty much have a VIP pass to all the dead carcasses, wether or not something else did all the work to kill it.

[Glider]

Yes, that makes sense...it would take an awful lot for a 6 ton bipedal animal to get both feet off the deck. Shame really...I'll have to replace my image of sleek, powerful predators, charging their prey with swift, lethal grace, to one of lumbering clods who keep falling down...*sigh*. Ah well...disillusionment is to be expected as we get older I guess. Still, walking at 20kph is still pretty cool.

 

It does make you wonder, as they had no way of supporting themselves in a fall (tiny li'l arms), what the overall advantage of their 'design' was in evolutionary terms. The most efficient modern land predators are quadrupeds. Had T-Rex and Allosaur been on 4 legs, they would probably have been faster, and a lot more stable. I wonder what kind of advantage these rudimatary arms (or lack therof) gave?

[Skye]

Well like that site said, at 20 km/h they would be going faster than a rhino can run. It would be easily outrunning (outwalking?) many of the large herbivorous dinosaurs. And at that speed it would get hurt by falling but not fatally.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it attacked it's prey in the water, at least sometimes. Many of the larger dinosaurs spent alot of in the water, hadrosaurs were abundant and seem fairly defenseless. Current bipeds are quite efficient at both wading and swimming. I've never actually heard of this theory though, maybe it doesn't hold water;)