Re: Is Jack Horner right about T-rex?

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 07:42 PM 4/6/99 -0500, Megaraptor wrote:
>I hope he is not.  T-rex was one of the top preds.(preds. is a
>abbreviation for predators) in the mid to late Cretaceous.

Two quick things (okay, three):

I)  The official abbreviation of _Tyrannosaurus rex_ is _T. rex_ (no hyphen).
II) Like most carnivores, _T. rex_ almost certainly engaged in both
predation and scavenging: very few, if any, large bodied terrestrial meat
eaters are exclusively one or the other.
III) _T. rex_ is only known from the Hell Creek Formation, Lance Formation,
and equivalent-aged strata from the North American west.  That makes it not
merely a Late Cretaceous form, but exclusively a *latest* Cretaceous form:
any younger, and it would be in the Cenozoic!!

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:tholtz@geol.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661