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tyrant teeth (was RE: _T. rex_ debate in the newspaper)



> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Paamy
>
>
> I doubt that T. Rex would have been capable of biting through the neck
> vertebrae of it's prey, as this would almost certainly have broken its
> teeth. Rex teeth are designed for cutting gashes out of prey

Actually, "tearing" rather than "cutting" is more appropriate here: the
teeth of tyrannosaurids are anything but blade-like.  Furthermore, they have
much higher resistance to torsion and compression than typical theropod
teeth of the same height (or same fore-aft length).  Additionally, it is not
at all uncommon to find tyrannosaurid teeth with wear facets on the tips,
indicating that tooth-bone contact was not a rare happening.

> and leaving
> large debilitating wounds, and rounded teeth are much better at removing
> large amounts of flesh from the victim in one bite, leaving a 'trough'
> shaped wound, than pointed slashing teeth. Why would Raptors have needed
> their teeth so much when they had sickle claws anyhow.
>
To eat.  (This is like asking why cats have teeth if they have claws!).

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796