Secrets behind T rex's bone crushing bites unveiled
May 17, 2017  16:57
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The giant Tyrannosaurus rex pulverised bones by biting down with forces equalling the weight of three small cars while simultaneously generating world record tooth pressures, according to a new study.

Researchers, including those from Florida State University in the US, said that T rex could pulverise bones - a capacity known as extreme osteophagy that is typically seen in living carnivorous mammals such as wolves and hyenas, but not reptiles whose teeth do not allow for chewing up bones.

They found that this prehistoric reptile could chow down with nearly 8,000 pounds of force, which is more than two times greater than the bite force of the largest living crocodiles. At the same time, their long, conical teeth generated an astounding 431,000 pounds per square inch of bone-failing tooth pressures.

This allowed T rex to drive open cracks in bone during repetitive, mammal-like biting and produce high-pressure fracture arcades, leading to a catastrophic explosion of some bones.

"It was this bone-crunching acumen that helped T rex to more fully exploit the carcasses of large horned-dinosaurs and duck-billed hadrosaurids whose bones, rich in mineral salts and marrow, were unavailable to smaller, less equipped carnivorous dinosaurs," said Paul Gignac, assistant professor at Oklahoma State University in the US.
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