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Tyrannosaurus Rex - Hunter or Scavenger?
Topic Started: Jul 15 2012, 10:00 AM (12,436 Views)
DinosaurMichael
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So I just finished watching Valley of the T-Rex and though I accept Jack Horner's opinion about T-Rex being just a scavenger. I still think T-Rex was both a Predator and a Scavenger.



So what do you guys think T-Rex is in your opinion. A Hunter, Scavenger or Both?
Edited by DinosaurMichael, Jul 16 2012, 12:59 AM.
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Raptor
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can you specify on the armament.
it could not run at all!
its thigh bone was longer than its shin bone.
its air sac system is for helping it to walk long distances to carcasses.
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Verdugo
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Raptor
Nov 20 2012, 10:24 PM
can you specify on the armament.
it could not run at all!
its thigh bone was longer than its shin bone.
its air sac system is for helping it to walk long distances to carcasses.
Giganotosaurus has higher femur/tibia ratio than T rex, and many large Theropod also has higher femur/tibia ratio than T rex

T rex just need to be faster than its preys, it doesn't need to be very fast like JP3
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theropod
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Raptor
Nov 20 2012, 10:24 PM
can you specify on the armament.
it could not run at all!
its thigh bone was longer than its shin bone.
its air sac system is for helping it to walk long distances to carcasses.
nearly all large theropods have longer femora than tibiae, that does by no means mean they couldn“t run
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7Alx
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Raptor
Nov 20 2012, 10:24 PM
it could not run at all!
its thigh bone was longer than its shin bone.
Based on your argument Achillobator couldn't run at all too, because the femur is 505 mm, while tibia is only 490.4 mm. lol
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Carcharadon
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T.rex needed to be more of a hunter than a scavenger. It would not even survive at all if it was more of a scavenger, because i doubt carcasses emerge that often for it.
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EmperorTyrannosaur
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This has already been settled a long time ago, both, as were all large Theropods in all likelyhood.

And you are right Dark Allosaurus, which means not many large Rex's would get fed by the time smaller carnivores had their share of carrion agro
Edited by EmperorTyrannosaur, Nov 21 2012, 08:04 AM.
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theropod
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I think its frankly sad that such a ridiculous thread exists in a forum dedicated to science.
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mega t.rex the magnificent
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dino-ken
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Agreed - the only logical answer is both. While I think T.rex was mainly a predator. It's also very doubtful that it would pass up a free meal - if one was available. Most carnivores wouldn't - and it was likely true for T.rex as well.
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Taipan
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Broken tooth in dinosaur's tail proves T rex hunted live prey: scientists

Updated 1 hour 36 minutes ago

Posted Image
PHOTO: Researchers examine the Tyrannosaurus rex tooth crown embedded between the vertebrae of a hadrosaur

A broken Tyrannosaurus rex tooth found in another dinosaur's tail bone offers the first hard evidence that the king of all meat-eating beasts hunted live prey, US palaeontologists said.

Scientists have long debated whether the fossil record really proves the legendary T rex was a ferocious hunter, or just a scavenger which feasted on carcasses of the dead.

Previous discoveries of dinosaur bones in the bellies of T rex fossils, and even T rex-shaped bites out of the tails of other dinosaurs, have strongly suggested that the late Cretaceous (66-100 million years ago) beast was a predator.

But palaeontologists have not been able to rule out that T rex was an opportunistic scavenger, and scientists say the latest research still cannot disprove that theory.

What researchers have described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a US journal, is the first discovery of a broken T rex tooth in another dinosaur bone - in this case, in the vertebrae of a plant-eating hadrosaur.

"What we can tell from this without a shadow of a doubt is that a T rex engaged a living hadrosaur," said lead author Robert dePalma, of the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History in Florida.

"What this present specimen does is it helps to essentially recrown the king."

Posted Image
CT scans of the hadrosaur bones. A) the two tail bones fused together and B) showing the cross-section of the Tyrannosaurus rex tooth buried in the bone (the white oval at the bottom of the picture). Scale bars are 1 cm.

T rex could regrow teeth the size of bananas

The bones were uncovered in 2007 in the Hell Creek Formation, a prominent dinosaur fossil field that spans parts of Montana and North and South Dakota.

Poking out of two fused vertebrae is a major chunk of a T rex tooth - a well-preserved crown 3.75 centimetres long.

T rex teeth were as big as bananas, and they could regrow any lost during their lifetimes, much like sharks do today, Mr de Palma said.

The hadrosaur's bone regrew over the injury, signifying that the creature escaped and healed, maybe even living for years afterward.

"The rarity of this piece is so extreme," said Mr dePalma, who worked with co-authors at the University of Kansas and the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in South Dakota.

"We never in a million years expected to find something that was this clear in the fossil record," he added.

But researchers said their analysis does not mean T rex ate only living beasts. They say it probably ate dead remains, too.

"Like most modern large predators, it almost certainly did also scavenge carcasses," the study said.

Posted Image
Tyrannosaurus rex was a ferocious predator who preyed on herbivores such as hadrosaurs, one of which was Edmontosaurus

Less lion and more hyena?

Some experts have argued that the lumbering T rex - as tall as a two-storey house - could not run fast enough to be a skilful predator.

Jack Horner, curator of palaeontology at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, has described the T rex as less like a lion and more like a hyena - a creature that fed on creatures large and small, both carrion and fresh-killed prey.

A survey of dinosaur remains in the Hell Creek Formation by Mr Horner and colleagues in 2011 showed that there were a high number of T rex bones compared to other large dinosaurs, suggesting the T rex must have had a range of food options to keep its population thriving.

Mr Horner has also advanced the theory that T rex's short arms, big body and apparently strong sense of smell made it suited for sniffing out the dead.

Asked for comment on the latest research, Mr Horner told AFP in an email it was "insignificant."

"It certainly does not refute our idea that T rex was an opportunistic carnivore like a hyena. It simply shows that a tyrannosaur bit a hadrosaur," he said.

"It does not reveal any evidence concerning the circumstance."

Other evidence has been found of a T rex apparently chomping on another dinosaur's tail, but those fossils lacked the tooth left behind and contained only a bite mark.

Ken Carpenter, a palaeontologist at Utah State University who has uncovered one such T rex bite mark, said the latest research backed up the bad-boy legend, but also rendered a softer image of the T rex as a fallible hunter, just like modern animals.

"When you have specimens that show regrowth of bone around an injury that can only be attributed to a T rex, as in the case of the new article, then it is pretty conclusive that T rex was indeed a predator," he said.

"That we have evidence of failed kills, unsuccessful kills is kind of neat. It shows that T rex was just as unsuccessful as predators today.

"Let's face it. Everybody would think it was pretty bogus if something as cool as T rex could only eat dead things."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-16/broken-tooth-in-dino-tale-proves-t-rex-ate-meat/4822104




Physical evidence of predatory behavior in Tyrannosaurus rex
Robert A. DePalma IIa, David A. Burnhamb,1, Larry D. Martinb,2, Bruce M. Rothschildb, and Peter L. Larsonc

Abstract
Feeding strategies of the large theropod, Tyrannosaurus rex, either as a predator or a scavenger, have been a topic of debate previously compromised by lack of definitive physical evidence. Tooth drag and bone puncture marks have been documented on suggested prey items, but are often difficult to attribute to a specific theropod. Further, postmortem damage cannot be distinguished from intravital occurrences, unless evidence of healing is present. Here we report definitive evidence of predation by T. rex: a tooth crown embedded in a hadrosaurid caudal centrum, surrounded by healed bone growth. This indicates that the prey escaped and lived for some time after the injury, providing direct evidence of predatory behavior by T. rex. The two traumatically fused hadrosaur vertebrae partially enclosing a T. rex tooth were discovered in the Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota.

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/07/10/1216534110.abstract
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Godzillasaurus
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I wouldn't deny that tyrannosaurus was an active and accomplished hunter. However, I also would like to point out that is may have filled a similar niche to the spotted hyena, hunting occasionally but scavenging primarily.
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Bandog
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Godzillasaurus
Jul 17 2013, 02:30 AM
I wouldn't deny that tyrannosaurus was an active and accomplished hunter. However, I also would like to point out that is may have filled a similar niche to the spotted hyena, hunting occasionally but scavenging primarily.
Spotted hyenas are nothing like you described.
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Godzillasaurus
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Bandog
Jul 17 2013, 02:35 AM
Godzillasaurus
Jul 17 2013, 02:30 AM
I wouldn't deny that tyrannosaurus was an active and accomplished hunter. However, I also would like to point out that is may have filled a similar niche to the spotted hyena, hunting occasionally but scavenging primarily.
Spotted hyenas are nothing like you described.
Oh really? Sorry, I don't know anything about hyenas. What did I get wrong?
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Bandog
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They are primarily hunters and scavenge a lot less than is lead on.
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Godzillasaurus
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Bandog
Jul 17 2013, 02:38 AM
They are primarily hunters and scavenge a lot less than is lead on.
I see...
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