Sunday, April 2, 2023

In further tyrannosaurs disappointments...

Finally, there is an answer to the question that has long perplexed scientists since the discovery of dinosaurs: did Tyrannosaurus rex have lips? And get this, they did. Maybe.
Well not now, I mean millions of years ago.
Well it doesn't not look like a scrotum,
but still, that's pretty dumb for a scientist.
I say since the discovery of dinosaurs, but people have been finding dinosaur bones for thousands of years,they just assumed they were dragons or giants or, iguanas. There was even part of a femur from a Megalosaurus that at least one scientist identified as "scrotum human;" a fossilized human scrotum. It wasn't until 1842 that paleontologist Richard Owen came up with the term dinosaur and even then it just means terrible lizard, which they're not. Lizards I mean. And I'm sure some of them were terrible, but I think he meant in the sense of big, or awe inspiring. Which is also not true across the boards. 

Some dinosaurs looked more like chickens. In fact, I think the prevailing understanding now is that they are chickens, or at least that chickens evolved from dinosaurs.
I suppose the lesson here is that evolution is cruel and arbitrary. 
Between this and the feathers science
seems bent on making them adorable.
Anyway, apparently the lip question goes back a hundred years, but recently paleontologists from Auburn University in Alabama compared things like anatomy and tooth enamel from fossil remains with those of living animals like Komodo dragons--which has lips and is one of the less disappointing descendants of dinosaurs--and crocodiles--which like tyrannosaurus rex are just nightmare creatures, but don't have lips--and concluded that tyrannosaurus likely had lips covering their teeth. The jury's still out, but I mean, lips. And ok, sure.

In fact, if kind of sounds like the only reason we don't picture tyrannosaurus with lips is that were used to illustrations and movies where they're lipless teeth monsters. But I suppose if the idea just ruins your childhood, bear in mind the thing about the scrotum bone and remember that this is science and always open to revision and reinterpretation.
Unlike some other worldviews I could mention, but won't.

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