[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]
Re: skin fossils
>Also, I have heard that there is a skin fossil fragment from Tyrannosaurus
>rex. Is there any scalation, and if so, how large are the scales?
The specimen, IIRC, was prepared by The Tyrell Museum's
Darren Tanke, from a T. rex specimen unearthed in Sask., Canada.
The impression shows pebbly texture, generally similar to
Edmontosaurus skin.
I seriously doubt that this pebbly texture covered the entire
animal. Skin patterns on Carnotaurus are somewhat variable
(pebbly to spiky to discoid, etc.), and this probably was also
the case with T. rex.
I myself am intrigued by the unusual degree of rugosity of
T. rex's nasal bones. Maybe, with a little luck, a specimen
will eventually be dug up that preserved soft tissue impressions
in the sediment over the nasals.
I also wonder if T. rex had a throat pouch of sorts.
A few restorations show a fat-necked animal, but
I have an aesthetic taste for the "Paulian"-style restorations,
which show a generally very lean, skinny-necked animal.
Unfortunately, aesthetic taste doesn't have anything to
do with science....
<pb>
--
Phil Bigelow
bh162@scn.org