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Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs on the planet, had an air conditioner in mind, suggest scientists from the University of Missouri, Ohio State University and the University of Florida, while challenging more than one century of previous beliefs.
In the past, scientists believed that two big holes in the roof of a T. rexThe skull, called the dorsotemporal window, was filled with muscles that facilitate jaw movements.
But this claim baffled Casey Holliday, professor of anatomy at the MU School of Medicine and principal investigator of the study.
"It's really strange for a muscle to come out of the jaw, make a 90-degree bend and skirt the roof of the skull," Holliday said. "Yet, we now have a great deal of irrefutable evidence of the presence of blood vessels in this region, based on our work with alligators and other reptiles."
Using thermal images – devices that translate heat into visible light – researchers have examined alligators at the zoo at St. Augustine's alligator farm in Florida. They believe that their evidence offers a new theory and insight into the anatomy of a T. rexis the head.
"The body heat of an alligator depends on its environment," said Kent Vliet, laboratory coordinator of the Department of Biology at the University of Florida. "So we noticed that when it was colder and the alligators were trying to warm up, our thermal imaging showed big hot spots in those holes in the roof of their skull, indicating a rise in temperature." , later in the day, it is warmer, the holes look dark, as if they had been extinguished to keep cool.This is consistent with previous evidence that alligators have a cross flow circulatory system – or a internal thermostat, so to speak. "
Holliday and his team took their thermal imaging data and examined the fossilized remains of dinosaurs and crocodiles to see how this hole in the skull had evolved over time.
"We know that, just as the T. rex, alligators have holes in their skulls and they are filled with blood vessels, "said Larry Witmer, professor of anatomy at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of Ohio. Yet for over 100 years, we have been putting muscles in a similar space with dinosaurs. By using a little bit of anatomy and physiology of current animals, we can show that we can reverse the first assumptions about the anatomy of this part of the T. rexis the skull. "
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Material provided by University of Missouri-Columbia. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
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