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Feeding strategies

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Main article: Feeding behaviour of Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus tooth marks on bones of various herbivorous dinosaurs

Ever since the first discovery of Tyrannosaurus most scientists have speculated that it was a predator, and that like modern large predators it would readily scavenge or steal another predator's kill if it had the opportunity.[1] Most paleontologists accept that Tyrannosaurus was both an active predator and a scavenger like most large carnivores.[2] Tyrannosaurus has been described as the Apex predator in Late Cretaceous North America.[3]

The damage to the tail vertebrae of this Edmontosaurus annectens skeleton indicates that it may have been bitten by a Tyrannosaurus

Evidence suggests hunting behavior in Tyrannosaurus. A skeleton of the hadrosaurid Edmontosaurus annectens has been described from Montana with healed tyrannosaur-inflicted damage on its tail vertebrae. The fact that the damage seems to have healed suggests that the Edmontosaurus survived a tyrannosaur's attack on a living target, i.e. the tyrannosaur had attempted active predation.[4] There is also evidence for an aggressive interaction between a Triceratops and a Tyrannosaurus in the form of partially healed tyrannosaur tooth marks on a Triceratops brow horn and squamosal (a bone of the neck frill); the bitten horn is also broken, with new bone growth after the break. It is not known what the exact nature of the interaction was, though: either animal could have been the aggressor.[5] Since the Triceratops wounds healed, it is most likely that the Triceratops survived the encounter and managed to overcome the Tyrannosaurus. In a battle against a bull Triceratops, the Triceratops would likely defend itself by inflicting fatal wounds to the Tyrannosaurus using its sharp horns.[6]

The eye sockets of tyrannosaurs are positioned so that the eyes would point forward, giving them binocular vision slightly better than that of modern hawks. It is not obvious why natural selection would have favored this long-term trend if tyrannosaurs had been pure scavengers, which would not have needed the advanced depth perception that stereoscopic vision provides.[7][8]

A study in 2012 by Karl Bates and Peter Falkingham demonstrated that Tyrannosaurus had the most powerful bite of any terrestrial animal that has ever lived, finding an adult Tyrannosaurus could have exerted 35,000 to 57,000 N (7,868 to 12,814 lbf) of force in the back teeth.[9][10][11] Even higher estimates were made by Mason B. Meers in 2003.[12]

This allowed it to crush bones during repetitive biting and fully consume the carcasses of large dinosaurs.[13] Stephan Lautenschlager and colleagues calculated that Tyrannosaurus was capable of a maximum jaw gape of around 80 degrees, a necessary adaptation for a wide range of jaw angles to power the creature's strong bite.[14][15]

Tyrannosaurus, and most other theropods, probably primarily processed carcasses with lateral shakes of the head, like crocodilians. The head was not as maneuverable as the skulls of allosauroids, due to flat joints of the neck vertebrae.[16]

Two teeth from the lower jaw of specimen MOR 1125, "B-rex", showing the variation in tooth size within an individual

Tyrannosaurus may have had infectious saliva used to kill its prey as shown by serrations (tiny protuberances) on the cutting edges of the teeth are closely spaced, enclosing little chambers. These chambers might have trapped pieces of carcass with bacteria, giving Tyrannosaurus a deadly, infectious bite much like the Komodo dragon was thought to have.[17][18] Tyrannosaurus's tooth serrations may have been more like cubes in shape than the serrations on a Komodo monitor's teeth, which are rounded.[19]: 214–215 

Paleontologist Jack Horner has been a major proponent of view that Tyrannosaurus was not a predator at all but instead was exclusively a scavenger.[19][20][21] He has put forward arguments in the popular literature to support the pure scavenger hypothesis:

  • Tyrannosaur arms are short when compared to other known predators. Horner argues that the arms were too short to make the necessary gripping force to hold on to prey.[22]
  • Tyrannosaurs had large olfactory bulbs and olfactory nerves (relative to their brain size). These suggest a highly developed sense of smell which could sniff out carcasses over great distances, as modern vultures do. Research on the olfactory bulbs of dinosaurs has shown that Tyrannosaurus had the most highly developed sense of smell of 21 sampled dinosaurs.[23]
  • Tyrannosaur teeth could crush bone, and therefore could extract as much food (bone marrow) as possible from carcass remnants, usually the least nutritious parts. Karen Chin and colleagues have found bone fragments in coprolites (fossilized feces) that they attribute to tyrannosaurs, but point out that a tyrannosaur's teeth were not well adapted to systematically chewing bone like hyenas do to extract marrow.[24]
  • Since at least some of Tyrannosaurus's potential prey could move quickly, evidence that it walked instead of ran could indicate that it was a scavenger.[20][25] On the other hand, recent analyses suggest that Tyrannosaurus, while slower than large modern terrestrial predators, may well have been fast enough to prey on large hadrosaurs and ceratopsians.[26][27]
  1. ^ Farlow, J. O. & Holtz, T. R. (2002). "The fossil record of predation in dinosaurs" (PDF). In Kowalewski, M. & Kelley, P.H. (eds.). The Fossil Record of Predation. The Paleontological Society Papers. Vol. 8. pp. 251–266. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-31.
  2. ^ "Time to Slay the T. rex Scavenger "Debate"". National Geographic. July 16, 2013. Archived from the original on July 12, 2018.
  3. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/jan/26/tyrannosaurus-rex-predatory-feeding
  4. ^ Carpenter, K. (1998). "Evidence of predatory behavior by theropod dinosaurs". Gaia. 15: 135–144. Archived from the original on November 17, 2007. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
  5. ^ Happ, John; Carpenter, Kenneth (2008). "An analysis of predator–prey behavior in a head-to-head encounter between Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops". In Carpenter, Kenneth; Larson, Peter E. (eds.). Tyrannosaurus rex, the Tyrant King (Life of the Past). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 355–368. ISBN 978-0-253-35087-9.
  6. ^ Dodson, Peter, The Horned Dinosaurs, Princeton Press. p.19
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Stevens2006Binocular was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference jaffe was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Switek, Brian (October 2012). "The Tyrannosaurus Rex's Dangerous and Deadly Bite". Smithsonian Institution.
  10. ^ Bates, K. T.; Falkingham, P.L. (2012-02-29). "Estimating maximum bite performance in Tyrannosaurus rex using multi-body dynamics". Biological Letters. 8 (4): 660–664. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2012.0056. PMC 3391458. PMID 22378742.
  11. ^ Crispian Scully, (2002) Oxford Handbook of Applied Dental Sciences, Oxford University Press –ISBN 978-0-19-851096-3 P156
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference MM03 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Gignac, Paul M.; Erickson, Gregory M. (2017-05-17). "The Biomechanics Behind Extreme Osteophagy in Tyrannosaurus rex". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 2012. Bibcode:2017NatSR...7.2012G. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-02161-w. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5435714. PMID 28515439.
  14. ^ "Estimating cranial musculoskeletal constraints in theropod dinosaurs | Open Science". Rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org. 2015-11-04. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
  15. ^ "The better to eat you with? How dinosaurs' jaws influenced diet". Science Daily. November 3, 2015. Archived from the original on November 4, 2015. Retrieved 2018-09-14.
  16. ^ Snively, Eric.; Cotton, John R.; Ridgely, Ryan; Witmer, Lawrence M. (2013). "Multibody dynamics model of head and neck function in Allosaurus (Dinosauria, Theropoda)". Palaeontologia Electronica. 16 (2). doi:10.26879/338.
  17. ^ Abler, William L. (1992). "The serrated teeth of tyrannosaurid dinosaurs, and biting structures in other animals". Paleobiology. 18 (2): 161–183. doi:10.1017/S0094837300013956.
  18. ^ Goldstein, Ellie J. C.; Tyrrell, Kerin L.; Citron, Diane M.; Cox, Cathleen R.; Recchio, Ian M.; Okimoto, Ben; Bryja, Judith; Fry, Bryan G. (2013-06-01). "Anaerobic and aerobic bacteriology of the saliva and gingiva from 16 captive Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis): new implications for the "bacteria as venom" model". Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine. 44 (2): 262–272. doi:10.1638/2012-0022R.1. ISSN 1042-7260. PMID 23805543. S2CID 9932073.
  19. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference hornerlessem1993 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ a b Horner, J.R. (1994). "Steak knives, beady eyes, and tiny little arms (a portrait of Tyrannosaurus as a scavenger)". The Paleontological Society Special Publication. 7: 157–164. doi:10.1017/S2475262200009497.
  21. ^ Amos, J. (July 31, 2003). "T. rex goes on trial". BBC.
  22. ^ Amos, Jonathan (2003-07-31). "Science/Nature | T. rex goes on trial". BBC News. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
  23. ^ "T. Rex brain study reveals a refined 'nose'". Calgary Herald. October 28, 2008. Retrieved October 29, 2008.
  24. ^ Chin, Karen; Tokaryk, Timothy T.; Erickson, Gregory M.; Calk, Lewis C. (June 18, 1998). "A king-sized theropod coprolite". Nature. 393 (6686): 680–682. Bibcode:1998Natur.393..680C. doi:10.1038/31461. S2CID 4343329. Summary at Monastersky, R. (June 20, 1998). "Getting the scoop from the poop of T. rex". Science News. 153 (25): 391. doi:10.2307/4010364. JSTOR 4010364. Archived from the original on May 11, 2013.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference dinodictionary was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference HutchinsonGarcia2002TrexSlow was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference manningetal2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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