T. rex's neck was key to its strength

摘要

Don't laugh at its arms. Lilliputian forelimbs didn't stop Tyrannosaurus rex from being a fearsome killer and now we know why - because its head and neck were so powerful. Tyrannosaurs, the family of predatory dinosaurs that includes T. rex, had necks that were similar to those of modern birds. So Eric Snively of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and his colleagues studied how birds feed in an attempt to reconstruct how T. rex went about making a kill. The team placed electrodes on the skin of a dozen birds from 10 species, ranging from chickens to bald eagles, to measure precise muscle movements during feeding.