Scientists Say T. Rex Had Three-Ton Bite

And now for a brief bit of dinosaur geekery: Researchers at the University of Manchester had the fun job of putting together a computer model of a Tyrannosaurus rex skull that gave them a clearer idea about the bygone species’ bite, which turns out to be more impressive than previously believed.  —KA

BBC:

Dr Karl Bates from the biomechanics laboratory at the University of Liverpool led the research.

He and his colleague, Peter Falkingham from the University of Manchester, used the life-sized copy of a T. rex skeleton exhibited at Manchester Museum as a model for their study. “We digitised the skull with a laser scanner, so we had a 3-D model of the skull on our computer,” Dr Bates explained.

“Then we could map the muscles onto that skull.”

The scientists then reproduced the full force of a bite by activating the muscles to contract fully - snapping the digital jaws shut.

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bbc.co.uk

Here we see T. rex’s skull digitized to get a better sense of the prehistoric creature’s mighty bite.