January
9, 2019, University of Reading
Tyrannosaurus
rex, renowned for being one of the most fearsome creatures to have ever lived,
evolved a bite that was less impressive in relation to its body size than a
tiny Galapagos ground finch, scientists say.
New
analysis by scientists at the University of Reading and the University of
Lincoln has shown the evolution of T. rex was not led by a strong need for a
bone-crushing bite to kill its prey. Instead, it had a bite force (57,000
Newtons) that was completely average for its body mass (8 tonnes)
and which evolved gradually over tens of millions of years.
Comparatively,
a Galapagos large ground finch was found to have the most powerful bite in
relation to its body size of all the
animals in the study, packing an impressive 70N of force, despite weighing just
33 grammes. This makes the bite force of the finch about 320 times more
powerful, pound-for-pound, than T. rex. Moreover, the finch evolved its
mega-bite relatively quickly, in less than one million years.
The
research also suggests human intelligence may
have led to us having an extremely weak bite. This is owing to the evolution of
our larger brains taking up space in our heads where the muscles critical for
hard biting would otherwise be.
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