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THE BONE-CRUSHING bite of Tyrannosaurus Rex was like no other, according to a study released this week that solidifies the fabled carnivore’s reputation as the most fearsome of dinosaurs.
T Rex could not only crack the biggest of bones, it could also pulverise and ingest them, absorbing marrow and minerals beyond the reach of less well-endowed competitors, researchers reported.
“The combination of impressive bite force and stout teeth set T Rex apart,” lead author Paul Gignac, an assistant professor at Oklahoma State University, told AFP.
“It regularly scored, deeply punctured and even sliced through bones.”
Gignac and Gregory Erickson from Florida State University built on earlier attempts to measure T Rex’s bite force by adding comparisons with predators roaming the wild today.
Wolves and hyenas, for example, are also able to crush bones with their teeth, accessing nutritious marrow.
Their secret? So-called occluding teeth that fit together perfectly, top-and-bottom, a feature common in carnivorous mammals.
T Rex lacked such dental gear, raising the question of how they managed to shatter resistant bones the size of small tree trunks.
“Without occlusion, it is typical for food items to rotate and shift as teeth are being engaged,” making it difficult to get a firm grasp, said Gignac.
To be sure, sheer power counts for something.
The study found that T Rex’s jaw exerted a crushing 3.6 tonnes of force, equivalent to the weight of three mid-sized cars.
‘Extreme limits’
Even more impressive, the dinosaur’s tooth pressure, a new metric devised by the researchers, was even greater: an astounding 30 tonnes per square centimetre (431,000 pounds per square inch) of dental surface.
But even that may not have been enough to get the job done, the study found.
Saltwater crocodiles, the world’s largest living reptiles, exert nearly as much pressure despite their much smaller size. They use that power, however, to capture not chew their prey, swallowing them whole instead.
The difference is that T Rex, even if it lacked occluding teeth, still have the necessary equipment to make short work of bones.
“It had extraordinarily large, conical and strongly rooted teeth that were replaced after being worn every couple of years,” Gignac explained.
The findings, reported in the journal Scientific Reports, show that “sophisticated feeding systems more commonly associated with modern mammals also appeared during the Age of Dinosaurs,” he added.
Interestingly, the limit to T Rex’s bite force was probably not muscular, but the capacity of its teeth to withstand such intense stress.
Crocodiles and T Rex ”are probably operating at tooth pressures that are nearing the extreme structural limits of what reptilian tooth enamel can handle,” Gignac said.
T Rex’s grip, in other words, may be just what is needed to fracture bones. Any more might have caused irreparable damage to the king’s pearly whites.
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Lift all restrictions immediately and salvage what’s left of some sectors of business.
@a: It’s a poor bit of trolling when no one on journal.ie bites.
@Justin Gillespie: how is that trolling, seriously? Like you can disagree with someone without calling them a troll. It just loses all meaning if you’re going to throw the word around in situations where it doesn’t make sense.
@Laura Walsh: if you’re familiar with the comment section you’ll be aware of his record of trolling. He’s always trying to stir.
I think we should go for full lockdowns anyway…. for nostalgias sake. Just to rub it in the face of those Anti-Vaxxers and Anti-Boosters(previous pro vaxxers) who kept talking about looney vaccine passports, controlled economic collapse and endless medical tyranny based on endless pandemics.
I think we should all have to wear bracelets as a public display of our gullibility… as a rightful show of faith and our trust of politicians (FFG & non-opposition SF) and multinationals. Only a right wing loon would thing that supranational entities, multinationals and politicians vested interests, do not align exactly to our own.
@Special_Ed:
Citizen 7266389G
You have committed a thought crime. You must now present yourself to the misitry of corrections where you will be subjected to 15 hours of continuous Hector and Al Porter television programming. Term is 7 days. (Everyone breaks by day 1)
@Special_Ed: When satire imitates a pending reality.
@O’Brien: al porter would probably take that tv gig at this stage.
@Alpha Centauri: It’s always pending though, isn’t it ? The ‘truth’, and the evidence for it are just around the corner. It’s coming…… Just wait……….. Anytime now…..
@Tommy Roche: You’re correct Tommy. It’s always pending. Just 2 weeks to flatten the curve.
When this was discovered in South Africa it was noted that it was more transmissible yet with a lot less severe symptoms.
So why dismiss these findings but massively promote the early severity findings of the Delta variant ?
Surely it’s a positive that it’s more transmissible with weaker symptoms thus creating natural immunity ?
@Mr Bordello: it could be the beginning of the end if it turns out it rips through the world but is only a cold.
However, it takes days or weeks to go from sick, to very sick, to hospital to icu to death etc. We dont yet know. South Africa has a much younger population too.
But i am optimistic.
@Jeff Cole: I am optimistic too. Early indications are showing that it may be less severe. I think the risk will be if it replicates and spreads more easily, another variant will pop up again. But hopefully it’s like the Spanish flu and dials itself down.
@Mr Bordello: I don’t think anyone was “dismissing” those early findings. They were just saying it was too early to draw that conclusion. It takes several weeks for infections to turn to hospitalisations and then to deaths. Even now it’s still to early to be sure. With delta in was the same. We started seeing cases in December but it was January before we started getting large numbers of people in hospital and dying.
@Mr Bordello:
1. I didnt know I could make comments.
2. There’s no PC way of saying this, Irish media generally doesn’t allow health experts who are black or yellow. It’s all white dudes with terrible track records of corruption.
3. Merry Christmas.
No doubt the Irish ‘experts’ will have a different take on it.
It might be not as severe as Delta, but tests, conducted in Germany and shared by Christian Drosten, one of the leading virologists there, show the following: 6 months after the vaccination, the protection against Omicron is 0%. Yes, zero percent. A booster shot helps for a few weeks, but after 3 months, the protection is down to 25% again.
@Claudia Varell: Is this a real comment?. Omicron has been out about 2-3 weeks maybe a bit longer but this guy knows when the world didn’t? And what’s worst is people are giving you a thumbs up. Bring back the thumbs down.
@Claudia Varell: what a guy, is the time machine he has available for rent?
@Derek Lyster: It will be available 6 months ago
Your answers just prove that you don’t know how laboratories work. Can you imagine that they can take the blood and other samples of someone who has been vaccinated 6 months ago and test, how the immune reaction to the Omicron variant is? Same with the boosters which have given out in some countries since months. The main issue is, that the vaccination is for the Alpha variant and was already less effective against Delta, like another well reputated virologist, Alexander Kekulé pointed out 3 weeks ago. Dr. Kekulé also hit out against politicians and their false promises about freedom through vaccinations. Especially after data from Brazil last year proved, that there won’t be a herd immunity against Covid. He called it the “pandemic of the vaccinated”.
Felt very hopeful after getting the booster shot last week. Thought I was protected for another nine months. Even considered booking a holiday. But on Prime Time last night a medic said that the Pfizer vaccine (the booster vaccine) is less effective against the new Omicron variant.
@Declan Reidy: less effective does not mean not effective. 89% is less than 90% but still a pretty good number. Be careful about how you interpret these things and use multiple sources to inform yourself. Full disclosure, my 89/90% analogy is only an analogy. I don’t know what the actual effectiveness rates are
Open the nightclubs!
@Alan Lynch: Yay!
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