Web Site

  
 
Theories & Controversies
Extinction of the Dinosaurs | Flying Dinosaurs
Intelligence  | Life Spans | Stegosaurus' Second Brain
The Color of Dinosaur Skin  | The Texture of Dinosaur Skin
T-Rex as Scavenger | Warm-blooded vs. Cold-blooded

 

 View printable page version.

Tyrannosaurus Rex as Scavenger
Tyrannosaurus rex has been characterized by some as a creature too large to move quickly enough to bring down prey. Instead, they say, it was a scavenger that looked for already-dead animals to feast upon. They suggest that a good sense of smell alerted it to the presence of carrion in the vicinity, which it then consumed at leisure, being large enough to scare off any other scavengers.

While no carnivore passes up a free meal, it requires a stretch of the imagination to envision the perfect hunting machine that was Tyrannosaurus rex as a mere carrion-eater.

If Tyrannosaurus rex had been just a scavenger, would it have needed its extremely powerful jaw muscles and rows of saber-like teeth? Would it have needed its massive thigh musculature for lumbering around from carrion to carrion?

And, why was it so large? Modern predators, such as lions and tigers are much larger than scavengers, such as buzzards and hyenas. Tyrannosaurus rex had all the equipment necessary to be a very efficient predator. Tyrannosaurus, they say, moved quickly and struck hard.








 Jurassic Art
  Database Home
  Order Software











  © 2005 Arts & Letters Corporation
Translate to:   Chasque aquí para traducir inglés a español. Cliquetez ici pour traduire l'anglais en Français. Klicken Sie hier, um Englisch in Deutschen zu übersetzen. Scattisi qui per tradurre l'inglese in italiano. Estale aqui para traduzir o inglês no português.