Description
With its massive head, enormous jaws, and formidable teeth, Tyrannosaurus rex has long been the young person’s favorite creepy carnivore in the Mesozoic zoo. Nor has T. rex been ignored by the scientific community, as this new collection amply demonstrates. Scientists explore such questions as why T. rex had such small forelimbs; how the dinosaur moved; what bone pathologies tell us about life in the Cretaceous; and whether T. rex was a predator, a scavenger, or both. There are reports on newly discovered skeletons, on variation and sexual dimorphism, and how the big beasts chewed. The methods used by the contributors to unlock the mysteries of T. rex range from “old fashioned” stratigraphy to contemporary computer modeling. Together they yield a wealth of new information about one of the dinosaur world’s most famous carnivores. An enclosed CD-ROM presents additional photographic and filmed reconstructions of the mighty beast. Contents Supplemental CD-Rom Contents Contributors Preface Institutional Abbreviations 1. One Hundred Years of Tyrannosaurus rex: The Skeletons Neal L. Larson 2. Wyoming’s Dynamosaurus imperiosus and Other Early Discoveries of Tyrannosaurus rex in the Rocky Mountain West Brent H. Breithaupt, Elizabeth H. Southwell, and Neffra A. Matthews 3. How Old Is T. rex? Challenges with the Dating of Terrestrial Strata Deposited during the Maastrichtian Stage of the Cretaceous Period Kirk Johnson 4. Preliminary Account of the Tyrannosaurid Pete from the Lance Formation of Wyoming Kraig Derstler and John M. Myers 5. Taphonomy of the Tyrannosaurus rex Peck’s Rex from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana Kraig Derstler and John M. Myers 6. Taphonomy and Environment of Deposition of a Juvenile Tyrannosaurid Skeleton from the Hell Creek Formation (Latest Maastrichtian) of Southeastern Montana Michael D. Henderson and William H. Harrison 7. One Pretty Amazing T. rex Mary Higby Schweitzer, Jennifer L. Wittmeyer, and John R. Horner 8. Variation and Sexual Dimorphism in Tyrannosaurus rex Peter Larson 9. Why Tyrannosaurus rex Had Puny Arms: An Integral Morphodynamic Solution to a Simple Puzzle in Theropod Paleobiology Martin Lockley, Reiji Kukihara, and Laura Mitchell 10. Looking Again at the Forelimb of Tyrannosaurus rex Christine Lipkin and Kenneth Carpenter 11. Rex, Sit: Digital Modeling of Tyrannosaurus rex at Rest Kent A. Stevens, Peter Larson, Eric D. Wills, and Art Anderson 12. T. rex Speed Trap Phillip L. Manning 13. Atlas of the Skull Bones of Tyrannosaurus rex Peter Larson 14. Palatal Kinesis of Tyrannosaurus rex Hans C. E. Larsson 15. Reconstruction of the Jaw Musculature of Tyrannosaurus rex Ralph E. Molnar 16. Vestigialism in a Dinosaur William L. Abler 17. Tyrannosaurid Pathologies as Clues to Nature and Nurture in the Cretaceous Bruce M. Rothschild and Ralph E. Molnar 18. The Extreme Lifestyles and Habits of the Gigantic Tyrannosaurid Superpredators of the Late Cretaceous of North America and Asia Gregory S. Paul 19. An Analysis of Predator-Prey Behavior in a Head-to-Head Encounter between Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops John Happ 20. A Critical Reappraisal of the Obligate Scavenging Hypothesis for Tyrannosaurus rex and Other Tyrant Dinosaurs Thomas R. Holtz Jr. 21. Tyrannosaurus rex: A Century of Celebrity Donald F. Glut Index
