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I
don't think anyone mentioned this, but the name "B-rex" derives from its
discoverer, MOR preparator Bob Harmon. It's is not a formal taxa by any
stretch of the imagination, just a nickname. Actually, there are also
"C-rex" (Celeste Horner), "G-rex" (Greg Wilson), "J-rex" (Jack Horner), "L-rex"
(Larry... I forget his last name), and "X-rex" (thought to have been
another T. rex, now a very large hadrosaur). All of those
tyrants were found in one summer. This summer, THREE more were found
in the last month or so of fieldwork. And there were like eleven found in
the previous century? Apparently T. rex was way more common in the Lower Hell
Creek. Or maybe they are just getting lucky? Interesting, in any
case.
Mike
de Sosa
Brief story at Discovery about Tyrannosaur finds
at Hell Creek:
including a youthful scamp.
Interesting that the stripling is called
B-rex (note the dash) and the elders T. rex.
Anyway, the main issue discussed is why they've
been finding tyrannosaurs and little else:
"We don't know if we've been totally lucky or it's something else," said
Horner. "We're totally puzzled." One Triceratops and a duckbill dinosaur were
found the first year of the now three-year-old excavation site, he said. But
since then the only dinos they've found have been T. rex.
Among the possible explanations is that T. rex just had better bones.
"Tyrannosaurs have very, very dense bones — so the chances of preserving
are better," said [Phil] Currie.
Thicker than the bones of herbivores? I'm surprised.
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