Re: T-Rex a Scavenger?!?

[WILLSCULPT@aol.com]

On 11/28/94 Sean Kerns Wrote:
> Anyone have any comments on this? I saw a Paleoworld episode >recently
>in which Jack Horner asserts that he believes that T. Rex (and by
>association, all tyrannosaurids?) were not in fact predators, but
>instaed were essentially gigantic vultures...
>Now, several things hit me wrong about this:
>Why would he need all those teeth simply to pick at roadkill on
>the side of the Mesozoic freeway? Certainly, he could have got away
>with much smaller teeth and jaws. Nobody's gonna pick on a vulture
>that size......Anyone care to support this claim, or offer more info?
>Thanks.

With all due respect to Jack Horner:  If T-Rex and all other tyrannosaurids
were just big vultures, Why did Triceratops and Torosaurus, among others,
evolve such elaborate and formidible defensive weapons.  Did T-Rex see a
charging Triceratops one day and say "Gee look at the horns on that baby!  I
think I'll stick to road kills"  I think that the defensive array on the big
herbivores tells us something about what (or who) was preying on them.

I have seen a reconstruction of the famous T-Rex named "Sue" from the Black
Hills.  "Sue" had a broken leg, (Tibia or Fibula, I can't remember which) and
a broken Caudal Vertebrea, both of which had healed, so It was clear that
"she" had sustained some injuries that did not kill her outright.  "She" also
had some tooth impressions in her Maxillary indicating that "she" had been
bitten by another T-Rex.
Don't know if these tooth marks showed signs of healing or not.

Bill Hunt  -  Frustrated Marine Biologist  -  Happy Artist
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