By Chris Skeldon 
Strange but true
April 2, 2023 | 8:44 p.m
A new study reveals that the depiction of Tyrannosaurus rex in popular culture may be inaccurate.
AP photo/Mary Altaffer, archive
NEW YORK – Tyrannosaurus Rex is often featured with its huge, sharp teeth, like the ferocious creature found in “Jurassic Park.”
But new research suggests that the classic picture may be wrong.
He infers that the teeth of T. rex and other large theropods were covered in scaled blade. The study was published Thursday in the journal Science..
Scientists have found that dinosaur teeth do not protrude when the mouth is closed, and even with a wide open bite, you can only see the tips.
The research is the latest in a long-running debate about the shape of dinosaurs’ mouths.
Recent photos show large teeth protruding from the dinosaur’s jaws, even when they were closed. Some believe the predators’ teeth were too big to fit in their mouths, said study author Thomas Cullen, a paleontologist at Auburn University in Alabama.
When researchers compared the skulls of live dinosaurs and reptiles, they found that was not the case.
Some large monitor lizards have teeth larger than Altis Rex compared to the size of their skull, Cullen said, and they can still fit under a set of scaly lips.
The scientists also found clues in the wear pattern on the tooth surfaces.
For a creature like a crocodile whose teeth protrude from its mouth, the exposed part of it wears down quickly — “like someone taking a sander with the tooth,” said another author on the study, Mark Whitton, a scientist at the University of England. Portsmouth.
But when the researchers analyzed a tooth from Daspletosaurus, a close relative of T. rex, they found that it was in good condition and didn’t show the uneven damage pattern.
With this and other evidence of dinosaur anatomy, the study makes a good case for transparent dinosaurs, said University of Maryland paleontologist Thomas Holtz, who was not involved in the study.
However, “we’re not talking about receptive lips,” he noted—they would be thin and scaly like those of the Komodo dragon, a large lizard.
This isn’t the first time our portrayal of dinosaurs has been called into question: other research has shown that Tyrannosaurus rex was more curved than we thought, and that the ferocious Velociraptor may have had feathers.
Most of what we know about dinosaurs comes from their bones, but it can be difficult to get clear answers about soft tissues like skin, which are not usually preserved as fossils.
Adding lips may make the dinosaurs look less ferocious, Wheaton said, but it also makes them more realistic.
“You don’t really see a monster,” he said. “You see an animal.”