Bakker in the News: T. rex as T. wrecks; Dino Research Center

[Richard W Travsky <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/krindianapolis/20011011/lo/cinedome_to_become_dinosaur_research_center_1.html

CineDome to become dinosaur research center
By David Mannweiler, Indianapolis Star

The Children's Museum will close its 6 1/2-year-old CineDome big-screen
movie theater in the fall of 2002 and spend $700,000 to convert the
building into a $25 million Dinosphere -- a juvenile dinosaur research
center and exhibit.

Renowned dinosaur paleontologist Robert Bakker of Colorado, one of nine
members of a new Dinosphere paleontology advisory board from the United
States, Canada and China, expects the new exhibit to be "among the
top dozen dinosaur exhibits in the world" when it opens in 2004.

The exhibit will emphasize juvenile and family dinosaur fossils.

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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011014/sc/exp_t_wrecks_1.html

Researcher: T-Rex Wasn't Happy

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) - Even the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex can't escape the
merciless progress of scientific knowledge. The truth is cruel: T-rex was
probably T-wrecks.

``If we did Jurassic Park 4,'' says Wyoming paleontologist Robert Bakker,
``T-rex would be portrayed in a fear-, angst-ridden role - sort of a large
Woody Allen character.''

The fearsome thunder-lizards lived wretched lives, he said. ``They were
beat up, limping, had oozing sores, were dripping pus and disease-ridden,
and had to worry about their children starving and other T-rexs coming in
and kicking them out.'' 

Bakker, of the Wyoming Dinosaur Society, knows this because of research by
Elizabeth Rega, a physical anthropologist at Western University in Pomona,
Calif.

Rega and University of Iowa paleontologist Chris Brochu examined three
T-rexs, including Sue, one of the most complete specimens in the world.
Sue's lower leg bone had an infection that healed but probably leaked pus
at times.

``I don't know if this would have debilitated the animal, but it probably
would have been really smelly in life,'' Rega said. 

Sue also had several broken ribs, and several bones in her spine and tail
had stiffened and begun to fuse. But strangely enough, the marks on her
bones indicate she was healthy.

``Most diseases kill without leaving a mark on the bones,'' she said.
``They're healthy because they're living with it.'' 

Rega's research indicates that T-rex healed more like a mammal than a
reptile. That bolsters paleontologists who theorize some dinosaurs were
warm-blooded.