"CT Scan Reveals Dino Skeleton's Secrets"

[Lawrence_Dunn@smbcgroup.com]

 CT Scan Reveals Dino Skeleton's Secrets                                    
 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS                                                    
                                                                            
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Filed at 11:27 a.m. ET                                                     
                                                                            
                                                                            
 POWELL, Wyo. (AP) -- A CT scan of dinosaur bones from northwest Wyoming    
 could help resolve a dispute about the great Tyrannosaurus rex.            
                                                                            
                                                                            
 The scan gave researchers a detailed look at a bite mark in the rib in the 
 hadrosaur, a duckbilled herbivore that lived 70 million years ago.         
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Scientists theorize a T. rex bit the hadrosaur -- and the hadrosaur        
 survived. That's significant because it is often thought that T. rex was a 
 scavenger that did not hunt live prey.                                     
                                                                            
                                                                            
 ``A 40-foot long, plant-eating dinosaur was attacked in what is now Park   
 County 68 million years ago and lived to fight another day,'' said         
 paleontologist Marilyn Wegweiser, of Cody. ``And that's cool.''            
                                                                            
                                                                            
 The scan was done for free at Park County Memorial Hospital.               
                                                                            
                                                                            
 The hadrosaur, nicknamed ``Lucky'' by Wegweiser, led a tough life,         
 evidenced by various bones showing wounds that healed.                     
                                                                            
                                                                            
 ``Something was trying to make a meal out of this dinosaur,'' Wegweiser    
 said. ``Using this technology, we can virtually model the tooth that did   
 the biting.''                                                              
                                                                            
                                                                            
 The goal of the CT scan was to create a three-dimensional model of the     
 tooth that caused the wound. ``We can take this model into a museum and    
 compare it with teeth of dinosaurs currently known to science,'' she said. 
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Wegweiser said the tooth was large and probably done by a large theropod   
 -- a class of meat-eating dinosaurs that walked primarily on two back      
 legs.                                                                      
                                                                            
                                                                            
 ``This tooth comparison could give us solid evidence of a Tyrannosaurus    
 rex attack,'' she said. ``If it's proven that it's not a Tyrannosaurus     
 rex, then we have an entirely new dinosaur. It's a win-win situation.''    
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Lucky -- or what is left of Lucky -- was discovered by Wegweiser north of  
 Powell in the fall of 2000. The exact location of the dig is being held    
 confidential, she said.                                                    
                                                                            
                                                                            
 She has unearthed a great portion of the dinosaur over the past four       
 years. ``It takes a long time to dig up an entire dinosaur with a dental   
 pick,'' she said. ``There will be more than 33,000 man hours in this by    
 the time it's dug up, analyzed and put on display.''                       
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Wegweiser said the results of the CT scans will be ready this fall.        
                                                                            
                                                                            
 ``We have to get the processing of the data done, assemble the various     
 cross-sections into a single three-dimensional model, generate a virtual   
 model and hard copy of the tooth, compare and submit the data for          
 publication,'' she said.                                                   
                                                                            









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