![]() rex brain © Rachel Caldwell Key to plate This incredible organ suggests Tyrannosaurus rex was much smarter than previously thought! T. We carefully remove the brain to study it. The sense organs of the eyes, ears, nose and tongue all fed information to the brain: the control centre for the whole nervous system. SensesĪ look inside the skull of Tyrannosaurus rex reveals it had the sharp senses we would expect of a hunter. The teeth at the back are strongest – these would have been used to crush bones with incredible force. ![]() At the front of the jaws are sturdy, cone-shaped teeth, strong enough to hold down struggling prey.īehind these, the teeth at the edge of the mouth are thinner and serrated like steak knives, ideal for slicing through flesh and muscle fibre. Their shape is perfectly suited to the diet of an apex predator. The teethĬarefully, we examine the teeth. It controlled essential functions such as breathing and digestion, as well as processing thought, and controlling the muscles.Īlthough the brain is small compared to the overall size of the dinosaur, the regions involved in smell, sight and hearing are well developed, suggesting this animal had keen senses. The brain is around 30 centimetres long and housed deep inside the skull. Some of the team are surprised to see that it bears no resemblance to the long, thin tongues seen in most lizards today. Inside the oral cavity (mouth), the tongue is flat and fixed to the floor of the mouth. This means they would have worked together to give Tyrannosaurus rex sharp eyesight and help it accurately judge distances – important for any predator when closing in on its prey. Reaching lengths of up to 30 centimetres, they are the longest dinosaur teeth ever found. The jaw is lined with around 60 serrated teeth. Next we remove the flesh from one side of the head, revealing the bones beneath. I caution my team – the teeth are still sharp! We manipulate the jaw and find it can still open and close. These provided the force behind one of the strongest bites in history. Peeling back the scales, we find the muscles of the jaws. This suggests Tyrannosaurus rex may have carefully handled its young. Initial observations reveal the head is covered with scales, probably sensitive to touch, like those of crocodiles today. ![]() Measuring 1.5 metres from end to end, it contains the dinosaur’s sensory organs, as well as its brain and its infamous teeth. rex skull cross-section © Rachel Caldwell Seven beautiful clouds to brighten your day.Journey underneath the skin with these amazing pictures from the new book Anatomicum.In this extract from Tyrannosaurus Rex: A Pop-up Guide to Anatomy, palaeontologist Dougal Dixon imagines the first dissection of a fully-preserved T. rex was huge, weighing up to 14 tonnes, with serrated teeth, but its extraordinary senses were just as valuable in catching prey. ![]() There’s a reason Tyrannosaurus rex’s name means ‘tyrant lizard king’: it was one of the greatest hunters to walk the Earth. He also took issue with auctions of significant dinosaur skeletons and other fossils, which have raked in tens of millions of dollars in recent years.Įxperts have warned such trade could be harmful to science by putting the specimens in private hands and out of the reach of researchers.Look inside a dinosaur's skull with these pictures from the pop-up book Tyrannosaurus Rex Vertebrate palaeontologist Thomas Holtz – who is against the sale of such specimens Holtz – was sceptical, insisting that Trinity “really isn’t a ‘specimen’ so much as it is an art installation”. Just over half of the bone material in the skeleton comes from the three Tyrannosaurus specimens – above the 50% level needed for experts to consider such a skeleton as high quality. “Sue” went under the hammer in 1997 for $8.4m, before “Stan” took the world-record hammer price of $31.8m at Christie’s in 2020. ![]() The sites are known for the discoveries of two other significant T-Rex skeletons that have gone to auction. More than half the skeleton’s bones are original with the rest made from plaster and epoxy resin casts.Īs its name suggests, Trinity is made up of a composite skeleton of 293 bones from three dinosaurs – excavated between 20 from the Hell Creek and Lance Creek formations in Montana and Wyoming. The skeleton measures 3.9 metres high, 11.6 metres long and 2.65 metres wide. “I’m 100% sure we will see Trinity in the future somewhere again,” he said. Koller voiced optimism that although the skeleton had been sold to a private buyer, it would remain on public display. And so more than 30,000 visitors came and admired Trinity a lot of children,” he told AFP. “It was a wonderful auction because we showed Trinity for two-and-a-half weeks in the concert hall in Zurich. ![]()
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