Was T. rex just a big freeloader?
By Sid Perkins
Paleontologists have long debated whether Tyrannosaurus rex was a predator or a scavenger. In most previous analyses, scientists have scrutinized the creature’s teeth and jaws. Now, Graeme D. Ruxton and David C. Houston at the University of Glasgow in Scotland weigh in on the issue from another angle: whether a T. rex–size scavenger could have found enough dead meat to survive.
Ecosystems like the savannas of Africa could have provided sufficient carrion to nourish a scavenging T. rex, the researchers report in the April 7 issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.