Jurassic Park A makeover may begin. According to new research, tyrannosaurus rex And its close relative didn’t look like a crocodile. Instead, these dinosaurs lipped Choppers like lizards do today.
Emily Lesnar, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, said, “This is a wonderfully concise answer to a question that has been asked for a long time. He was not involved in the new research. Not that experts are convinced.
Both paleontologists and paleoartists have long debated whether it was a group of carnivorous dinosaurs that included theropods. T Rex— had lips. Auburn University paleontologist Thomas Cullen says reconstructions by scientists in the 1920s and his 30s showed that they had flesh on their teeth.However, popular media, including the 1993 film Jurassic Park, dinosaurs without large, prominent teeth and lips became popular. “It became … the public perception,” says Karen. “A large, large theropod with a large steak knife sticking out of its mouth.”
To see if the view had teeth, Cullen and his colleagues studied living reptiles (such as the Komodo dragon, which has lips and is a living relative of theropods) and some theropods. We analyzed the relationship between dinosaur skull length and tooth size.like Velociraptor and T RexThe team found that the theropod’s teeth, like those of living lizards, were neither too large for the skull, nor too long, and did not have to stick out of the mouth.
Next, researchers turned to enamel.they compared tooth slices Daspletosaurus A modern crocodile theropod. Crocodile teeth had a much thinner layer of enamel on the outside (compared to the inside of tongue-facing teeth) than dinosaur teeth, suggesting that dinosaurs may have had lips that protected the teeth from the elements. suggested to be high.
Finally, the team looked for clues by comparing the skull anatomy of various living and dead animals. Birds are the closest extant relatives of theropods, but they lack teeth. So researchers compared iguanas and monitor lizards’ skull features to those of dinosaurs and crocodiles. Crocs’ nose is full of tiny holes called dome pressure sensor holes that are part of the sensory system. However, lizards and iguanas have rows of large holes called foramen on their teeth that allow blood vessels and nerves to pass through. Dinosaur skulls closely resemble those of labial lizards and iguanas, researchers concluded today. chemistrysuggesting that theropod dinosaurs must have had lips as well.
Taken together, the evidence strongly suggests that theropods gave kisses that could kill. “There is little room for any other conclusion,” he says Lessner.
In addition to letting artists know how to draw accurately, T RexMovies (and Apple TV prehistoric planetThese results are important to researchers studying tooth growth, usage, wear and pathology, says Cullen. Knowing whether dinosaurs had lips is also key to inferring their feeding behavior, he says.
“This is a great first step,” adds Ashley Morhardt, a paleontologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Still, she points out that the study is based on a small sample size. For example, he only has one dinosaur tooth and one crocodile tooth, which could be biased. “The results are intriguing,” she says. “But I’m afraid we’ll need more data to say anything with confidence about the dinosaur ‘lips’ controversy. “
Thomas Kerr, a vertebrate paleontologist at Carthage University, is more dismissive. In 2017, he and his colleagues showed that theropods had highly textured facial bones that felt like crocodile-like wrinkled leather. This suggests that the dinosaur’s nose was covered in flat scales and lacked any extra soft tissue. Dinosaurs didn’t have lips. “can not find [the new study] compelling,” he says.
To finally settle the controversy, researchers will need to find better physical evidence of what theropods really looked like, says Carr. I hope the day will come when I find Tyrannosaurus’ he says. “But in the meantime, we really don’t know.”
