T. rex’s jaw had sensors to make it an even more fearsome predator

https://www.newswise.com/articles/t-rex-s-jaw-had-sensors-to-make-it-an-even-more-fearsome-predator-new-digital-study-finds?sc=dwhn

by smb111 • 5 years ago

28 14 5 years ago

newswise.com

fnord77• 5 years ago

we're calling Merkel cell nerve endings and tactile corpuscles "sensors" now?

I mean I guess they are, but it is weird to hear terms for artificial/technological apparati being applied to biological apparati

bryanrasmussen• 5 years ago

I mean it's popular science writing, so they have to make it understandable to people not educated in the underlying science.

LightG• 5 years ago

Wait until you hear that the T-rex had FSD fully installed upon hatching.

TeMPOraL2• 5 years ago

I'm expecting to see more of such language as time goes on, as we come to terms with life itself being just another piece of technology.

howaboutnope2• 5 years ago

I think it's the result of some people being more and more cut off and alienated from themselves and life around them, so that's why they view it as "just other piece of technology". It says everything about them and nothing about life.

conorpp• 5 years ago

Reminds me of an ongoing & heated debate about T. rex -- Did the T. rex have lips?

seriousquestion• 5 years ago

This completely changes our perception of T. rex as a dinosaur that was insensitive around its mouth, putting everything and anything in biting at anything and everything including bones.

I mean, wouldn't sensitivity be the default assumption? Why were they otherwise convinced?

serf• 5 years ago

I mean, wouldn't sensitivity be the default assumption? Why were they otherwise convinced?

I don't know if it's a related assumption, but it was at one time thought that the t-rex had sacrificial/re-growing teeth like a shark ( I don't follow this stuff much, so I don't know how dated that premise is. )

Maybe the assumption goes something like "Hyper-carnivores lose and re-grow their teeth routinely, so let's assume that their physiology has done something to negate the pain associated with the process."

pvaldes• 5 years ago

or a better scavenger

HenryKissinger• 5 years ago

We don't have Rex DNA, but could it be possible to rediscover Rex DNA by studying prints? I'm not a biologist, but in the same way that footsteps leave prints in snow or sand, can decayed DNA leave biological imprints behind that would allow us to reconstruct it?

VeninVidiaVicii• 5 years ago

Maybe in some sort of way that is undiscovered, but the important thing to note is that DNA is a chemical signature and not a physical one.

bagels• 5 years ago

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.11555

Dna doesn't last as long as Jurrasic Park would have us believe.

T. rex’s jaw had sensors to make it an even more fearsome predator

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