Diverse predatory dinosaurs Tyrannosaurus rex or so-called T-rex has two mini arms that do not fit posture her body. How come?
For information, the average length of the T-rex is about 13 meters, the length of the skull reaches 1.5 meters, but the length of the arms is less than one meter, and the weight can reach 8 tons.
In a new paper appearing in the latest issue of the journal Acta Palaeontologia Polonica on the T-rex arm size hypothesis, the tiny arms are an adaptation to hunting patterns.
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Kevin Padian, professor emeritus of integrative biology at the University of California, said paleontologists found evidence that some Tyrannosaurs hunted in groups, not alone, as depicted in many paintings and dioramas.
“Several important mining sites excavated in the last 20 years preserve adult and juvenile Tyrannosaurs together,” he was quoted as saying on the official website. University of California.
He also suspects the T-rex’s small arms are meant to prevent physical contact when swarming around prey, according to reports Science Daily.
This is to prevent clashes with similar species when swarming or eating food carcasses with great force.
“What if several adult Tyrannosaurs gathered around the carcass? You have a lot of huge skulls, with very strong jaws and teeth, tearing and chewing flesh and bone right next to you,” Padian said.
“What if your friends over there think you’re getting too close? They might warn you by severing your arm.”
As previously discussed, T-rex is a grouped species. Thus, the small arms aim to avoid disturbing juvenile T-rex when swarming prey with adult groups.
Padian noted that the predecessors of Tyrannosaurus had longer arms. According to him, there must be a reason why the organ has shrunk in both size and joint mobility.
However, he did not deny that any hypothesis regarding the short arm of T-rex, including his, would be difficult to prove because the species became extinct 66 million years ago.
opposite sex hugger
Large dinosaur fossil hunter, Barnum Brown, previously also had doubts when he found the first T-rex fossil found in 1900. The reason is that this T-rex has an arm that is too small compared to its body frame.
His colleague, Henry Fairfield Osborn, who described and named T. rex, hypothesized the short arms may have been limbs that held the female in place during copulation (pectoral claspers).
However, Osborn did not provide evidence. Padian noted that a T-rex’s arms were too short to embrace another T-rex, and certainly too weak to control his partner.
Several decades after the discovery, many researchers were looking for the reason why the predator only had hands no less than one meter.
Some experts suspect the short arms serve to attract mates or social signals, serve as anchors to help the species rise from the ground, hold prey, stab enemies, and even propel Triceratops species at night.
Quoted from Discover MagazinePadian also hypothesized that natural selection favored shorter forelegs, because the arms were of little use to carnivores.
Some paleontologists have even suggested that this T-rex arm has no function at all.
(can/arh)
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