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Re: Tyrannosaurid ontogeny



Sam Barnett wrote on 12/09/1999 
>>
A quote from the Tinker website:
"We don't know how Tinker died though we hope to find out. Maybe Tinker was 
killed by a pack of Nanotyrannus (Nano's were probably cousins of T-rexes); 
many shed Nano teeth were found with Tinker's body.Nano teeth are sharper and 
more delicate than rex teeth. Did they kill Tinker, or just feast on a 
convenient food source? We'll let you know what we find, as we find it."
...
Hmmm... Nanotyrannus teeth in a Tyrannosaurus nest - Wouldn't a more 
parsimonious sequence of events be that half-sized Juvenile Tyrannosaurus 
rexes had baby teeth and sometime between then and three-quarter sized 
development, the full adult teeth kick in?  The site even mentioned the fact 
that crocodile babies have needle teeth while the adults do not, yet did not 
ultimately come to this conclusion.  Is there some piece of information about 
this new find that I've missed?
<<

Could this help to clarify the status of Nanotyrannus as a genus different 
from T. rex? If there are two different kinds of teeth ("baby teeth" and 
tyrannosaurus like teeth) found in the size range of Nanotyrannus, wouldn't 
it show, that Nanotyrannus is a valid genus?

And what about asian tyrannosaurids like T. efremovi? Is something known 
about their teeth?

Perhaps somebody can help and thank you in advance.

Greeting from a rainy Germany

Heinz Peter Bredow
Bremen/Germany