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RE: T.rex Sleeping

David Feldman/and the DML:

I thought that I'd add my 2 cents in on this.

1. As others have already indicated, we believe that dinosaurs, especially the theropods, most likely slept.

2. We cannot be sure at this time. We can only guess, but our guesses may be well-supported.
A fossil found in China's Liaoning Province (its name was announced last year) was named _Mei long_, which means "soundly sleeping dragon" in Chinese. The fossil is an almost fully grown adult. It sits on long, folded hind limbs. Its forelimbs are folded birdlike next to its body and its neck curves to the left, so that its relatively small head lies between the left elbow and body. The posture is identical to the "tuck-in" posture of many living birds. (The dinosaur was about the size of a modern duck, and it died around 130 million years ago). Note that we cannot be sure that this wasn't merely its death posture. (Although, there was another dinosaur, _Sinornithoides_, that was discovered in 1994 [in Mongolia] in a similiar posture).

3. Due to its being a theropod (i.e. meat eater), _T. rex_ most likely slept a long time. Also, its large size may have restricted its possible sleep positions. Because of the size of _T. rex_'s pubic 'boot', it may have only slept on its belly, supported by that large pubic boot. It is not very likely that _T. rex_ laid on its side, as some others on the list have already mentioned.
For a good animation of how _T. rex_ may have sat down, and then gotten up to normal standing postition, look at DinoMorph ("http://www.cs.uoregon.edu/~kent/DinoMorph/Tyrannosaurus/";), go to the link "Rex sit", and scroll to the bottom of the long page and click on "descent" and "ascent" for QuickTime movies showing a _T. rex_ sitting and arising, respectively. [I'm surprised that no one else mentioned these animations]. You may wish to read the rest of the website - some very good information is there. You can extrapolate that the "ascent" link shows you how _T. rex_ would get up after sleeping.

[Just an aside: I'm using one notation that some people use for emailing, where I put the underscore ("_") on each side of a name to indicate the entire name should be underlined, which, as most editors [people, that is] know, means italize this. So, _Mei long_ is "Mei long" in italics. Other people use "*" on each side of a name, for the same purpose].

I hope this was helpful to you and your search for the answers to the "Impoderables". (I'm a fan - I have a few of the books - If i've already mentioned this, sorry for the repeat).

Good luck,

Allan Edels


From: feldman@imponderables.com
To: edels@msn.com
Subject: T.rex Sleeping
Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2005 19:44:02 -0800

Hi Allan,

I think you requested a text-only version of my post.  Hope this helps:

I write a series of books in which I answer mysteries sent in by readers.

One of my readers asked in what conceivable position the T.Rex slept. The books I have consulted have been rather murky on the subject, and I was wondering if anyone on this forum would have comments on the subject.

1. Do we know for a fact that dinosaurs slept?

2. Do we have evidence of the position in which any kind of dinosaur slept?

3. Anything special about the T.Rex?

Any help would be much appreciated.