Generations of kids have grown up reading that Tyrannosaurus Rex was the most fearsome predator of all time. You know – the all time nastiest and most capable predator.
Well I used to buy this line of the establishment scientist. But more and more I just laugh. I see a picture in my mind of T-Rex and the first thing I do is think of its puny arms and I laugh.
I’m not the first to do so as evidenced by this youtube video saying that T-Rex’s arms were quite strong. Well they may be- on punier creatures. But T-Rex was probably a seven ton creature. Those arms were so puny, I bet they couldn’t even help lift T-Rex up if it fell. Indeed, I see T-Rex as an animal that would right itself again by moving its massive tail.
Those thready little arms would be close to useless in a fight with another large creature. Thus I don’t think they were predators. Indeed I see those tiny little arms as contrivances for gently putting tree leaves in T-Rex’s mouth. That’s right, my claim is that T-Rex was a herbivore.
Scientists up until this point have been thrown by T-Rex’s sharp, sharp teeth. They’ve presumed that makes it a carnivore. But just because its teeth are sharp doesn’t guarantee T-Rex was a carnivore.
Many herbivore mammals have awesome horn weapons. Gentle sheep have males with huge horns. Indeed battering rams were named after the male sheep. There are pointed horns for goring like with goats and big complex horns for walloping like with moose.
T-Rex was just incapable of evolving fearsome horns so it developed fearsome teeth. Their cutting, sharp teeth were probably good for being territorial. Maybe they could fend off Argentinosaurus for prime tree grazing.
