SCHLEICH Dinosaurs Figure - Tyrannosaurus Rex Blue (UK Exclusive), 72155

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Only a single Tyrannosaurus specimen has been conclusively shown to belong to a specific sex. Examination of B-rex demonstrated the preservation of soft tissue within several bones. Some of this tissue has been identified as a medullary tissue, a specialized tissue grown only in modern birds as a source of calcium for the production of eggshell during ovulation. As only female birds lay eggs, medullary tissue is only found naturally in females, although males are capable of producing it when injected with female reproductive hormones like estrogen. This strongly suggests that B-rex was female and that she died during ovulation. [96] Recent research has shown that medullary tissue is never found in crocodiles, which are thought to be the closest living relatives of dinosaurs. The shared presence of medullary tissue in birds and other theropod dinosaurs is further evidence of the close evolutionary relationship between the two. [114] Posture Outdated reconstruction (by Charles R. Knight), showing upright pose

Tyrannosaurs had large olfactory bulbs and olfactory nerves (relative to their brain size). These suggest a highly developed sense of smell which could sniff out carcasses over great distances, as modern vultures do. Research on the olfactory bulbs of dinosaurs has shown that Tyrannosaurus had the most highly developed sense of smell of 21 sampled dinosaurs. [166]

Strengths

Like many bipedal dinosaurs, T. rex was historically depicted as a 'living tripod', with the body at 45 degrees or less from the vertical and the tail dragging along the ground, similar to a kangaroo. This concept dates from Joseph Leidy's 1865 reconstruction of Hadrosaurus, the first to depict a dinosaur in a bipedal posture. [115] In 1915, convinced that the creature stood upright, Henry Fairfield Osborn, former president of the American Museum of Natural History, further reinforced the notion in unveiling the first complete T. rex skeleton arranged this way. It stood in an upright pose for 77 years, until it was dismantled in 1992. [116]

terrestrial taxa such as tyrannosaurids and Neovenator may have had average facial sensitivity for non-edentulous terrestrial theropods, although further research is needed. The neurovascular canals in Tyrannosaurus may instead have supported soft tissue structures for thermoregulation or social signaling, the latter of which could be confirmed by the fact that the neurovascular network of canals may have changed during ontogeny. [169]

Weaknesses

One study of Tyrannosaurus specimens with tooth marks in the bones attributable to the same genus was presented as evidence of cannibalism. [209] Tooth marks in the humerus, foot bones and metatarsals, may indicate opportunistic scavenging, rather than wounds caused by combat with another T. rex. [209] [221] Other tyrannosaurids may also have practiced cannibalism. [209] Paleoecology Fauna of Hell Creek ( Tyrannosaurus in dark red, left).