Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:21 AMSo I've been doing some research(more than usual) about the senses of T.rex. What I found was amazing.
Time to get all technical and stuff...
Vision-
A study published by Kent Stevens of the University of Oregon concluded that Tyrannosaurus had keen vision. By applying modified perimetry to facial reconstructions of several dinosaurs including Tyrannosaurus, the study found that Tyrannosaurs had a binocular range of 55 degrees, surpassing that of modern hawks, and had 13 times the visual acuity of a human, thereby surpassing the visual acuity of an eagle which is only 3.6 times that of a person. This would have allowed Tyrannosaurs to discern objects as far as 6 km away, which is greater than the 1.6 km that a human can see.
Thomas Holtz Jr. would note that high depth perception of Tyrannosaurus may have been due to the prey it had to hunt; noting that it had to hunt horned dinosaurs such as Triceratops, armored dinosaurs such as Ankylosaurus and the duck billed dinosaurs may have had complex social behaviors. He would suggest that this made precision more crucial for Tyrannosaurus enabling it to, "get in, get that blow in and take it down." In contrast, Acrocanthosaurus had limited depth perception because they hunted large sauropods, which were relatively rare during the time of Tyrannosaurus
Smell-
Tyrannosaurus is notable for having very large olfactory bulbs and olfactory nerves relative to their brain size, the organs responsible for a heightened sense of smell. This suggest that the sense of smell was highly developed, and implying that tyrannosaurs could detect carcasses by scent alone across great distances. The sense of smell in tyrannosaurs may have been comparable to modern vultures, which use scent to track carcasses for scavenging. Research on the olfactory bulbs has shown that Tyrannosaurus rex had the most highly developed sense of smell of 21 sampled non-avian dinosaurs species.
Hearing-
Somewhat unusually among theropods, T. rex had very long cochlea of the ear. The length of the cochlea is often related to hearing acuity, or at least the importance of hearing in behavior, implying that hearing was a particularly important sense to tyrannosaurs. Specifically, data suggests thatTyrannosaurus rex heard best in the low-frequency range, and that low-frequency sounds were an important part of tyrannosaur behavior.
Intelligence-
A study by Grant R. Hurlburt, Ryan C. Ridgely and Lawrence Witmer would obtain estimates for Encephalization Quotients (EQs), based on reptiles (REQs) and based on birds (BEQs), as well estimates for the ratio of cerebrum to brain mass. The study would conclude that Tyrannosaurus had the relatively largest brain of all adult non-avian dinosaurs with the exception of certain small maniraptoriforms ( Bambiraptor, Troodon and Ornithomimus).
How about all that. T.rex had quite the array of senses and smarts. Just figured I'd share that with you all.
Hiphopananomus
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:26 AMPretty cool, thanks for sharing!
"Somewhere on this island is the greatest predator that ever lived. Second greatest predator must take him down."Roland Tembo"
"Jurassic park: The Lost World"
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:27 AMSure thing :)
JRR
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:28 AMConsidering all of that, Trex must of had a sort of disadvantage in other senses.
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:29 AMSince the only other two senses are taste and touch, I don't know how big a deal that'd be.
JRR
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:33 AMImean rex must of had somesort of diadvantage against its pray, no predator is perfect
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:36 AMShort arms maybe. Not the fastest dinosaur out there(not bad for it's size though. A 7-10 ton animal moving 15-25 miles per hour ain't bad).
Don't forget it's prey was tough. Horned ceratopsians, armored ankylosaurs, giant sauropods, fleet footed ornithomimids, and long tailed hadrosaurs.
JRR
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:38 AMmaybe, i think rex whas only succesfoul in hunting around 30% of the time
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:41 AMWell if T.rex wasn't a good hunter, then what kept the herbivore populations in check? It was the only predaotr big enough and common enough to do it(raptors were too small and rare to make any real impact and Nanotyrannus may have been a young T.rex).
JRR
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:46 AMIts like a savana, lions arent alwhays sucsesfoul, drougths, floods, and climate changes keep the hervibore population undercontroll
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:50 AMThen why have predators?
Anyways, this wasn't about T.rex hunting. This was about it's amazing array of senses and intelligence.
Hiphopananomus
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:52 AMPretty much all apex predators are perfect for their environment, T.rex was perfectly evolved for taking on armoured prey and decently fast prey
It's the same for other predators heres some examples.
Giganotosaurus was fast and agile and fairly powerful prefect for taking on hadrosaurs , sauropods and the other large theropods in its ecosystem.
Allosaurus was big enough to take on stegosaurs and sauropods and was fast enough to get away from larger and stronger theropods in its ecosystem.
"Somewhere on this island is the greatest predator that ever lived. Second greatest predator must take him down."Roland Tembo"
"Jurassic park: The Lost World"
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 7:55 AMYeah, I can agree with that(though I'm not aware of any hadrosaurs living with Giganotosaurus, though more primitive iguanodonts did).
Hiphopananomus
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:02 AMThat's what I meant, just wasn't specific enough, it's not like there very different. :)
"Somewhere on this island is the greatest predator that ever lived. Second greatest predator must take him down."Roland Tembo"
"Jurassic park: The Lost World"
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:05 AMI understand :)
JRR
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:06 AMstill all had disadvantages, or its prey would of gone extint, for example, giganotosaurus had some competicion in Ekrixinatosaurus, and it had a small brain
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:10 AMDon't forget predators don't hunt everyday. Plus they're heavily outnumbered by their prey.
An 3+ ton hadrosaur for example could probably hold a T.rex over for a few weeks. Plus there were probably hundreds of thousands of hadrosaurs as opposed to a few thousand T.rexes.
Anyways, this wasn't supposed to be about hunting in large theropods.
Hiphopananomus
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:10 AMOh yes all predators have disadvantages Giganotosaurus had a small brain and competition, T.rex had small arms and tough prey, Allosaurus had a small brain and other larger carnivores to deal with.
"Somewhere on this island is the greatest predator that ever lived. Second greatest predator must take him down."Roland Tembo"
"Jurassic park: The Lost World"
Hiphopananomus
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:11 AMYeah were off topic lets go back to the point of the topic! :)
"Somewhere on this island is the greatest predator that ever lived. Second greatest predator must take him down."Roland Tembo"
"Jurassic park: The Lost World"
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:13 AMWhat I find really interesting is how big a brain T.rex had. One of the biggest compared to body size of any non-avian dinosaur!
Lord Vader
MemberTyrannosaurus RexJul-28-2014 8:14 AMNice post. Very interesting. Gotta say, if the Cretaceous extinction didn't take place, Rex had the potential to last for millions upon millions of years longer than it did. Maybe it could have been one of the longest lasting species the Earth has seen (remaining unchanged I mean).
Jack of all trades. Master of none
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:15 AMI could see it.
Hiphopananomus
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:20 AMIt's possible, but, something probably would have stoped it like climate change or something that seems to stop most of the super predators, I myself think that the raptors would have lasted the longest, because unlike rex they wouldn't need as much food so they could live off other small animals that could also survive a climate change.
"Somewhere on this island is the greatest predator that ever lived. Second greatest predator must take him down."Roland Tembo"
"Jurassic park: The Lost World"
Lord Vader
MemberTyrannosaurus RexJul-28-2014 8:23 AMI meant among super predators, not the little ones. But, climate change might not have been as much a problem as you think. If Earth got colder, they'd probably go farther south. That, or the ones up north would die out slowly, but the ones further south keep thriving. If the earth got warmer, then opposite of previous situation.
Jack of all trades. Master of none
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:24 AMI think what he meant was T.rex could have been like, say, Allosaurus. Allosaurus was around from roughly 140-155 million years. A 15 million year run without changing much. If I'm correct, MrHappy means T.rex could have done something like that(maybe even longer) before it adapted and changed.
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:25 AMPosted that the same time MrHappy posted his, so ignore that if you wish ;)
Lord Vader
MemberTyrannosaurus RexJul-28-2014 8:27 AMThat's another way of looking at it though. It's a valid perception.
Jack of all trades. Master of none
Hiphopananomus
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:29 AMTrue, I don't know there's a reason why all of these super predators go extinct ussualy climate change sometimes there prey disappears or sometimes something better comes along.
I do think T.rex could definitely go for a long run but, if something changed significantly like there main prey dies out, or something better comes along or extreme climate change I just don't think something as large as a rex would survive unless it changed.
Don't get me wrong I completely understand what you guys are saying, I understand that rex was one of if not the most advanced predators to ever live but, I just don't think any super predator is invincible.
"Somewhere on this island is the greatest predator that ever lived. Second greatest predator must take him down."Roland Tembo"
"Jurassic park: The Lost World"
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 8:31 AMI know what you mean Hipho. No species lasts forever.
Sci-Fi King25
MemberAllosaurusJul-28-2014 9:44 AMThanks for sharing this information RexFan!
“Banana oil.”- George Takei, Gigantis: The Fire Monster
Silver_Falcon
MemberCompsognathusJul-28-2014 9:53 AMJust feel like pointing out that although rex had a large brain, most of it was purely for interpreting its senses, and its intelligence would be more comparable to that of a crocodile. I'll try to find the study that found this and share it with you guys.
Here, have a waffle (-'.')-#