Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Tyrant King

About this book

With its massive head, enormous jaws, and formidable teeth, Tyrannosaurus rex has long been the young person's favorite creepy carnivore in the Mesozoic zoo. Nor has T. rex been ignored by the scientific community, as this new collection amply demonstrates.

Scientists explore such questions as why T. rex had such small forelimbs; how the dinosaur moved; what bone pathologies tell us about life in the Cretaceous; and whether T. rex was a predator, a scavenger, or both. There are reports on newly discovered skeletons, on variation and sexual dimorphism, and how the big beasts chewed. The methods used by the contributors to unlock the mysteries of T. rex range from "old fashioned" stratigraphy to contemporary computer modelling. Together they yield a wealth of new information about one of the dinosaur world's most famous carnivores.

An enclosed CD-ROM presents additional photographic and filmed reconstructions of the mighty beast.

Contents

Contents
Supplemental CD-Rom Contents
Contributors
Preface
Institutional Abbreviations

1. One Hundred Years of Tyrannosaurus rex: The Skeletons Neal L. Larson
2. Wyoming's Dynamosaurus imperiosus and Other Early Discoveries of Tyrannosaurus rex in the Rocky Mountain West Brent H. Breithaupt, Elizabeth H. Southwell, and Neffra A. Matthews
3. How Old Is T. rex? Challenges with the Dating of Terrestrial Strata Deposited during the Maastrichtian Stage of the Cretaceous Period Kirk Johnson
4. Preliminary Account of the Tyrannosaurid Pete from the Lance Formation of Wyoming Kraig Derstler and John M. Myers
5. Taphonomy of the Tyrannosaurus rex Peck's Rex from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana Kraig Derstler and John M. Myers
6. Taphonomy and Environment of Deposition of a Juvenile Tyrannosaurid Skeleton from the Hell Creek Formation (Latest Maastrichtian) of Southeastern Montana Michael D. Henderson and William H. Harrison
7. One Pretty Amazing T. rex Mary Higby Schweitzer, Jennifer L. Wittmeyer, and John R. Horner
8. Variation and Sexual Dimorphism in Tyrannosaurus rex Peter Larson
9. Why Tyrannosaurus rex Had Puny Arms: An Integral Morphodynamic Solution to a Simple Puzzle in Theropod Paleobiology Martin Lockley, Reiji Kukihara, and Laura Mitchell
10. Looking Again at the Forelimb of Tyrannosaurus rex Christine Lipkin and Kenneth Carpenter
11. Rex, Sit: Digital Modeling of Tyrannosaurus rex at Rest Kent A. Stevens, Peter Larson, Eric D. Wills, and Art Anderson
12. T. rex Speed Trap Phillip L. Manning
13. Atlas of the Skull Bones of Tyrannosaurus rex Peter Larson
14. Palatal Kinesis of Tyrannosaurus rex Hans C. E. Larsson
15. Reconstruction of the Jaw Musculature of Tyrannosaurus rex Ralph E. Molnar
16. Vestigialism in a Dinosaur William L. Abler
17. Tyrannosaurid Pathologies as Clues to Nature and Nurture in the Cretaceous Bruce M. Rothschild and Ralph E. Molnar
18. The Extreme Lifestyles and Habits of the Gigantic Tyrannosaurid Superpredators of the Late Cretaceous of North America and Asia Gregory S. Paul
19. An Analysis of Predator-Prey Behavior in a Head-to-Head Encounter between Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops John Happ
20. A Critical Reappraisal of the Obligate Scavenging Hypothesis for Tyrannosaurus rex and Other Tyrant Dinosaurs Thomas R. Holtz Jr.
21. Tyrannosaurus rex: A Century of Celebrity Donald F. Glut

Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Peter Larson is founder and president of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota, whose staff was responsible for excavating the T. rex known as "Stan." He lives in Hill City, South Dakota.

Kenneth Carpenter is the dinosaur paleontologist for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. He is author of Eggs, Nests, and Baby Dinosaurs (IUP, 2000) and editor of The Carnivorous Dinosaurs (IUP, 2005) and The Armored Dinosaurs (IUP, 2001). He lives in Aurora, Colorado.