Although the various Jurassic Park films have always been known for their lack of scientific accuracy and have contributed to creating a distorted image of dinosaurs, this time we will have to radically change some beliefs about the most famous and important of them.
As it turns out, according to a study published in Science, we have been wrong to reconstruct the mouthparts of theropod dinosaurs such as the T.Rex which was as intelligent as a baboon, for over a century. If we had the (un)luck to see one live, probably we wouldn’t have seen some of the scariest teeth ever to exist in nature, at least while the mouth was closed. Instead, we would have noticed a thin pair of scaly “lips”, which concealed the terrible weapon.
Paleontologists have always faced the problem that skin and soft organs rarely fossilize, which is why animals have to be reconstructed based on bones and teeth, adding what is missing thanks to an extrapolation from existing species. But where does the error come from?
This is probably all due to the mistaken association with present-day animals. Some of our most iconic dinosaur images they involve T.Rex and other predators with their teeth bareda conclusion perhaps based on the permanent and not at all reassuring smile of the crocodile.
In contrast, the Komodo dragon, the other major reptilian predator of the modern era, has the grace of hide its sharp teeth behind soft facial tissues. Doctor. Thomas Cullen of Auburn University and his colleagues questioned whether there was any reason to expect theropods to be more aligned with crocodilians than Varanidaeexcept that the former are much more common nowadays.
Since we may not find any soft tissue evidence to be able to have a definitive answer, the researchers looked at the various levels of wear on the teeth of living dinosaurs and reptiles. Comparing them with different theropods, it was noted that the enamel present is relatively thin. This might not matter if you lose your teeth as frequently as a shark, but there is evidence that theropods kept their teeth for a long time. In contrast, crocodiles have much thicker enamel.
The research points out that theropods kept their teeth in their mouths and the lack of surface wear on the teeth of tyrannosaurids compared to those of modern crocodilians is decidedly emblematic. The authors take it as proof that dinosaurs kept their teeth moist with salivawhich would have been inefficient if it meant non-stop drooling with your teeth hanging out of your mouth.
After seeing that the T.Rex were surprisingly slow, here’s yet another revelation that turns everything upside down. Apparently, despite the impressive size, the ratio of teeth to jaws indicates that keeping them protected and hidden would have been entirely possible. The authors suggest that this was done through a series of thin, scaly lips, known as “lip scales”.