Can’t Chew, What Does T. rex Eat? page all

KOMPAS.com – Tyrannosaurus rex or T. rex is a member of the Tyrannosauroidea family of large predatory dinosaurs.

Paleontologist Sue Hendrickson’s measurements show that T. rex was one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs that ever lived.

T, rex is up to 4 meters high at the hips (T. rex’s highest point because it does not stand up straight) and 12.3 m long.

An analysis published in 2011 in the journal PLOS ONE also showed that T. rex weighed up to 9 tons.

With a very large body size, T. rex can certainly eat large prey.

Also read: This is the Last Dinosaur on Earth

Reported from National Geographic, There is a set of 66 million-year-old scratches on the leg bones of a Tyrannosaurus found in Wyoming.

The scratches were clearly made by a large predator with serrated teeth and T. rex, at the time, was the only carnivore capable of such damage.

Previously, T. rex has also been named a cannibal dinosaur.

In 2010, Nicholas Longrich and colleagues discovered four T. rex bones that had divots and gouges that only members of the same species could make.

However, this does not mean that T. rex only eats the remains of its own kind.

Thanks to fossilized traces of broken bones and fossilized faeces, paleontologists have a pretty good idea of ​​what T. rex ate to survive.

Also read: This Fossil of the Oldest Dinosaur Ancestor from South America Reveals the Origin of Dinosaurs

In a 2012 study of the bite force of prehistoric predators, researchers estimated that an adult T. rex could bite with a force of up to about 57,000 newtons.

While not the strongest bite of all time, it seemed enough to prey on an Edmontosaurus or Triceratops.

Several of its failed attempts showed that T. rex pursued its prey who lived as predators, not just scavengers.

While many of the T. rex bite marks on fossilized bones are “fresh” and appear to have been made during feeding, there are several Edmontosaurus fossils with healed bite marks along their backs.

One of the injured Edmontosaurus even had the tip of a T. rex tooth embedded in it.

Also read: The Oldest Stegosaurus Dinosaur Fossil in Asia Found in China, Like What?

How does T. rex eat its prey?

In a 2010 paper, David Hone and Mahito Watabe documented how a close relative of T. rex, Tarbosaurus, carefully disassembled hadrosaurs.

Not only does he crush flesh and bones, he also carefully uses his jaw to release muscles from bones.

Meanwhile, with its notoriously tiny arms, T. rex was unable to eat by word of mouth and neither could he chew.

The T. rex swallowed whole flesh and bones, using its strong neck muscles to throw its head backwards to drop the flesh into the back of its mouth.

This way of eating is called “inertia,” the feeding behavior of birds and crocodiles.

In a 2007 study scientists estimated that T. rex’s neck muscles were strong enough to toss a 110-pound bolus of meat into the air before it devoured it.

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