Re: gender

[Adam Yates <zooamy@zoo.latrobe.edu.au>]

On Wed, 8 Oct 1997, Dale wrote:

> I believe I saw on the post, on a description of "SUE" that there
> was a T Rex tooth stuck in one of the ribs, if this so can we
> hypothesize that SUE was a male?
>                                    Earl Wood
>                                    frog@cncnet.com

Absolutely not. We don't know anything about tyrannosaur behaviour, they
could have been generally nasty to one another regardless of sex, the
males could have bitten females during rough courtship (as in modern
sharks) or the tooth could have lodged there during scavenging after Sue's
death. The best osteological correlate of sex that we have appears to be
the proximal chevron character, which suggests that Sue is indeed female
and that intraspecific combat was not the exclusive domain of males.

Cheers 

Adam Yates