‘One other slice of triceratops, Barbara?’ Did the fearsome T rexes deal with their sick? | Dinosaurs

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Identify: Barbara.

Age: About 66m years outdated.

Look: Tyrant lizard queen, with a gammy foot and a child bump.

Tyrant lizard? I’m certain I learn one thing about T rexes being “lumbering scavengers”. The inexorable march of scientific progress means the consensus is now that they hunted and scavenged, and so they have been agile and fast to pivot, if not quick. Anyway, this one is extra of a T regina, if you’ll: Barbara, the pregnant T rex found in Montana.

Oh wow, does that imply they discovered T rex eggs? That’s cool! Not precisely, however Barbara’s protruding stomach means palaeontologists have concluded she died whereas pregnant.

That appears flimsy. Perhaps she’d simply had a very huge meal? You’re not secretly a palaeontologist, are you? I assumed not. Additionally they detected medullary bone tissue, which dinosaurs solely produce once they’re getting ready to put eggs.

Did you say she had a gammy foot, too? Sure, a damaged metatarsal, which might have been a catastrophic damage and prevented her from searching.

Poor Barbara. How did she survive? Both she would have scavenged, or she might have fed gregariously: mainly, different T rexes might need shared meals along with her (or she ate their leftovers).

Are you telling me T rexes would possibly be good to each other? Nicely, palaeontologists theorised that dinosaurs might need supplied one another “safety or feeding from pack kills”. So … presumably?

Is nothing sacred? Can’t a large face-eating predator be a large face-eating predator as of late? It appears fairly heartening to me that they’d share the faces they’re consuming with one another, however would you want some extra important statistics to take your thoughts off this touchy-feely snowflakery?

Hit me. She’s considered one of solely three pregnant T rexes ever found. Barbara is 11.7 metres lengthy and three.4 metres excessive. Her skeleton is 44.7% full, making her the eighth most full T rex ever discovered.

Spectacular. Who amongst us really feels as a lot as 44.7% full? And the place can I meet her? She’s happening show within the Auckland Museum in New Zealand on 2 December, subsequent to a smaller male specimen believed to be an adolescent, referred to as Peter.

What a destiny, spending all eternity standing subsequent to a teenage boy. If Barbara can survive a damaged metatarsal, I feel she’ll be wonderful.

Barbara isn’t a really large, ferocious predator title, is it? She’s a largely immobilised scavenger, bear in mind. Anyway, what would you counsel?

How about Roar-drey? Ruth-less? Bitey McBiteface? And because of this we haven’t talked about T rexes since 2009.

Do say: “Don’t rise up, Babs, you poor love. We’ve made you a bit of plate of nibbly bits.”

Don’t say: “RAWRRRRR.”

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