T. rex's Predatory Nature Revealed

Surprising find

fossil remnant of a hadrosaur bone — (Image credit: Rudolph Frank Pascucci)

Deadly predator

t. rex attacking edmontosaurus — (Image credit: Robert DePalma)

The findings reveal what every dinosaur lover always suspected: that T. rex was a fearsome predator, not just a scavenger.

Possible scavenger?

dino, dinosaur, dinosaurs, dinosaur colors, birds, reptiles, prehistoric, skin — (Image credit: AMNH/J. Brougham)

Past studies had suggested that T. rex had a strong bite, and stomach contents showed the giant was a carnivore. But because T. rex may have had a good sense of smell, some paleontologists argued the king of the dinosaurs wasn't a predator, but a scavenger. That keen nose could theoretically have been used to sniff out rotting carcasses.

Herbivorous creature

an edmontosaurus reconstruction — (Image credit: Leonello Calvetti | Shutterstock.com)

DePalma and his colleagues were excavating in the Hell's Creek formation in South Dakota when they uncovered part of the spine of a hadrosaur, likely the pine-needle-eating herbivore Edmontosaurus. Lodged inside the vertebrae was a T. rex tooth.

Narrow escape

a T. rex tooth found lodged into the spine of edmontosaurus — (Image credit: Fallon Cohen)

The bone healed around the tooth, suggesting that the hadrosaur lived for a while after the attack.

Deadly predator

Fossil remains of a dinosaur spine with a T. rex tooth lodged iinside — (Image credit: Fallon Cohen)

The new discovery completes the picture of T. rex as a deadly predator.

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Tia is the editor-in-chief (premium) and was formerly managing editor and senior writer for Live Science. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Wired.com, Science News and other outlets. She holds a master's degree in bioengineering from the University of Washington, a graduate certificate in science writing from UC Santa Cruz and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Tia was part of a team at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that published the Empty Cradles series on preterm births, which won multiple awards, including the 2012 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism.