A fierce hunter, Tyrannosaurus Rex has
the strongest bite of any animal to ever walk on land. More than 66 million
years ago, the creature prowled the late Cretaceous wilderness in search of a
Triceratops or Edmontosaurus to chow down on.
The small arms of the king of the
tyrant lizards were the only thing that did not look frightening. Theropods, a
group of bipedal, primarily meat-eating dinosaurs, were not the only dinosaurs
with short arms in comparison to the rest of their bodies; several of T. rex's
relatives also possessed this characteristic. However, why did a lot of
theropods develop such short arms?
Several potential reasons have been put up by scientists.
According to a study from 2021
that was published in the journal Acta Paleontologica Polonica, theropods with large teeth like T. rex may have developed tiny arms to
prevent arm-biting during feeding. The study's author hypothesised that since
paleontological evidence indicates that these animals consumed their food in
packs, the small limbs may have evolved to prevent unintentional arm-ripping
during the theropod horde's assault on a grappled Triceratops.
This is only a theory at the
moment. John Hutchinson, a scientist at the University of London's Royal
Veterinary College who wasn't involved in the study, said, "It's a wonderful
narrative. But ultimately, I believe we are in the dark".
Hutchinson approaches the
evolution of dinosaur forelimbs from a different perspective. He investigates
the biomechanics of mobility in huge terrestrial animals, both living and
extinct. "The arms didn't really get shorter, but the legs got
longer," he remarked of theropod evolution.
The forelimbs get smaller and the
skull gets bigger as the animals get bigger, he continued. Tyrannosaurs in
particular "adopt this bone-crushing killer bite in their head, so they
really specialise their head and then they just really, really shrink their
forelimbs," according to one researcher.
Tyrannosaurs and their theropod
relatives used their forelimbs less as a result of larger heads and bipedal
posture. They began to grab and kill prey more frequently by using their heads.
According to this theory, the forelimbs didn't develop as rapidly as the rest
of their bodies.
An animal can only commit a
certain percentage of its body volume to one activity at a time, according to
Hutchinson. "He is not able to master all trades. Therefore, you either
have a fair generalist body with all parts equally specialised for some
general ecological niche, or you really specialise like T. rex, who is highly
specialised to be a front-end predator."
The T. rex couldn't hunt or kill
because of its small arms. T. rex would bite "large pieces out of them,
ripping backwards with their muscular neck as they did," according to
Hutchinson, using a "puncture-pull" technique to bring down prey. He
remarked that this is also how contemporary komodo dragons (Varanus
komodoensis) hunt. Additionally, their broad back legs would have provided
support. There is currently no proof that their small guns in any way
contributed.
It's alluring to believe that
every characteristic animal posses have served the creature in some way
during its evolutionary process. However, occasionally characteristics just
arise (or vanish) without necessarily conferring a definite evolutionary
advantage. Forelimb length in this instance remained constant while other
features changed. To help them thrive in their biological niche, other T. rex
body parts developed to enormous sizes. The arms may not have needed to expand
along with the rest of the T. rex's body, making them appear absurdly little in
comparison.
Hutchinson cautioned that this
may not be the whole picture; it will likely take a lot more study and
well-preserved fossils to determine how T. rex and other theropods used their
arms.
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