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Tyrannosaurus rex
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Credit to The Prehistoric Times
 *This image is copyright of its original author
@epaiva :
About #61: very interesting and curious ! I presume that Scotty is a male T-Rex... May I speak on sexual dimorphism about T-Rex ? The Sue's mandible length is greater, whereas the Scotty's skull length is the greatest. The structure of the skull seems different according the sexe of the animal. I also know these two T-Rex were full adult but did the T-Rex grow all their life duration ? And of course, are we quite sure that the females were the dominant sexe among the T-Rex (and also all the theropods) ? 
@Spalea I believe Sue is no longer considered to be with certainty a female. The basis of the original conclusion is now considered too weak and for the same reason it seems, the paper describing the new giant T. rex refrains from assigning a sex completely. The sexual dimorphism and social dynamic touted during the early 2000s seems to be discarded as of late. The original conclusions seem to have made too many assumptions.
Considering the striking differences in the skulls, it's interesting both specimens are still considered to be of the same species. The differences seem as extreme if not more than that between the tiger and lion or polar bear and grizzly, for example. Scotty has a much more robust and stouter skull. Considering how diverse modern species are, maybe our classification of the dinosaurs is somewhat oversimplified.
@tigerluver :
About #63: thank you for your answer ! Nothing is certain, all the T-Rex mystery remains unsettled... Close to Scotty and Sue, lions and tigers are twins for sure ! It's blatant to see that the Scotty's skull is more powerful thant the Sue's. OK the life of the T-Rex could be a long life (more than 40 or 50 years), and if one of them was young, whereas the other one was old... Dubious. Agree with you, we could believe to be in front of the skulls of two different species of carnivorous dinosaurs. Fascinating ! I had read the book by Horner "The real T-Rex", the book that might show "the definitive and absolute depiction" of the T-Rex. In hindsight, we made 10 steps forward before completely moving back... The charm of the paleontology. 
Just one thing. There is no evidence of the sex in these specimens. "Sue" and "Scotty" are just popular names and in no case are related with the sex. The idea that female were larger than male in this species was based in the predatory birds of modern days, but there is no evidence that this happened with T. rex. In fact, the only specimen that is know by its sex (female and in reproductive age) is a small specimen, not a "robust" morph.
I have not investigated T. rex to well, but the diference in size culd be clinal or maybe diferent subspecies, I am just speculationg or course. They could be only diferences of sizes in a population, or diferences in age.
Feathered t-rex eating with family a triceratop. Looking at this painting well, indeed the forelimbs are ridiculously small. OK, probably, t-rex were feathered dinosaurs. In this case if I draw a paralel with the extant vultures, the t-rex's neck and head needed to be featherless... But other than that, very good work. We think that perhaps t-rex could hunt in pride. The youngest one being the quickest had to chase the preys, corner it and wait for the adults to join them and to kill the prey. Perhaps... It involves soon a enough developed social behaviour. Why not ?
I write "feathered t-rex" because it's hard for me to imagine them quite feathered. In the absence of absolute proofI prefer to write "a feathered t-rex". The climate during the Cretaceous had to be hot, hotter than now. Perhaps inside North America the nights could be fresh, but T-rex were rather huge weren't they ? IMO, the presence of feather is linked to the flight. OK ostrichs have plenty of feathers, but they are able to run very quickly, not the t-rex. And their legs and necks are featherless, why not the T-rexs' ?
A perfect t-rex's head in my mind. The mandibule is very strong here, the line of the jaw isn't rectilinear. The t-rex's masseter should be incredibly powerful, we are perhaps in front of the most powerful jaws of the past and extant animals on land. And the t-rex's neck should be too incredibly huge, being at least as thick, if not more, as the head. Each time this animal fighted and took hold of this opponent some bones should be crushed and retracting its neck the t-rex splited up from its adversary with 70 or 80 kilos of snatched meat in its mouth.
Otherwise, the eyes are small but the vision is stereoscopic, but don't let us forget the main t-rex's sense was the sense of smell.
Each time a t-rex is shown with its open mouth in a rather dark illustration, we think this is the end of the dinosaur era... To see some flowers at the foreground in this case amazes a few... But during the Cretaceous flowers appeared and thrived.
Impressive draw showing an huge t-rex coming just to kill a triceratops. A moderate-sized triceratops, judging by its rather small horns. But it corresponds with my t-rex vision precised at #69. When the t-rex bit a prey or an opponent, he riped some quarters of bones and flesh.
The most fantasized fight among dinosaurs: t-rex against triceratop.
It had been thinking for a long while that T-rex being a scavenger didn't seriously threaten an huge ceratopsid. After having discovering two t-rex's teeth plunged into a triceratop's bony frill one should have stated they were there after a fight and not after a t-rex had eaten a corpse. By the sinking dimensions t-rex's the power bite might be very huge, but perhaps not enough strong if the triceratop escaped from its aggressor. |
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