Tyrannosaurus rex just got scarier. It turns out every schoolchild’s favourite dinosaur has yet another attribute to justify its position as top trumps of the world’s predators: ferocious serrated teeth that were specially strengthened to help it tear through bone and sinew.
Scientists from the University of Toronto Mississauga have conducted in-depth research of arguably the most feared teeth in evolutionary history, and found that their saw-like design was supported by a unique arrangement of tissues inside them.
This would have provided much more strength when tearing through flesh and chomping on the bones of hapless herbivores.
For the research, published in Nature Scientific Reports, the scientists examined slices of teeth taken from eight carnivorous theropods, a branch including T. Rex and its cousins.