{"id":27528,"date":"2023-05-28T18:00:50","date_gmt":"2023-05-28T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=144744"},"modified":"2023-05-28T18:37:09","modified_gmt":"2023-05-28T16:37:09","slug":"the-t-rex-was-a-massive-coward-and-we-have-the-footage-to-prove-it","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/the-t-rex-was-a-massive-coward-and-we-have-the-footage-to-prove-it\/","title":{"rendered":"The T.rex was a massive coward \u2013 and we have the footage to prove it"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Apple TV+’s Prehistoric Planet, the Tyrannosaurus rex was more than willing to run from a fight. <\/p>

By Noa Leach\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 28 May 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

It\u2019s over 66 million years ago, and we\u2019re watching a Tyrannosaurus rex <\/i>devour the carcass of a giant sauropod dinosaur<\/a>. You definitely wouldn\u2019t want to be nearby, but\u2026 something\u2019s different. The T.rex<\/i> is a monster, sure \u2013 but its teeth are not those of the Jurassic Park<\/em> beast\u2019s giant daggers<\/a>. It\u2019s looking quite small really, and \u2013 strangely \u2013 it has lips.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, the T.rex<\/i> is overshadowed by a strange, somewhat elegant creature that resembles a hornbill bird mixed with a lemur. It\u2019s called a Quetzalcoatlus<\/em>: it\u2019s another giant predator, a pterosaur. And at six metres tall (the size of a giraffe), it\u2019s slightly bigger than the T.rex<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The familiar voice of David Attenborough tells us that this other beast could poke the T.rex<\/i>\u2019s eyes out with its almost 2m long beak. We don\u2019t get to see it try. In a surprising turn of events, the iconic Tyrannosaurus rex<\/i> \u2013 whose name literally comes from the Greek word for \u2018absolute ruler\u2019 \u2013 backs down.<\/p>\n\n<p>This is <a href=\"\/\/twitter.com\/TetZoo?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">palaeontologist Darren Naish<\/a>\u2019s favourite scene in the Apple TV+ second season of <a href=\"\/\/tv.apple.com\/us\/show\/prehistoric-planet\/umc.cmc.4lh4bmztauvkooqz400akxav"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\"><em>Prehistoric Planet<\/em><\/a>, out now. We spoke to Naish \u2013 the series\u2019 lead palaeontology consultant \u2013 about the science behind it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone, of course, always thinks of <i data-stringify-type=\""italic"\">Tyrannosaurus rex<\/i> as the ultimate predator: a non-stoppable killing machine that just bites other things in half,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut no predator behaves that way. Every predator does things to minimise the risk of injury and death to itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are cases where they will be very conservative behaviourally, almost cowardly. Because it\u2019s just not worth getting stabbed in the eye.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How do scientists know how dinosaurs behaved?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The second season of <em>Prehistoric Planet<\/em> focuses on interactions between creatures like this one, asking questions like \u2018What happens when two giant apex predators are competing for the same resource?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe answer that question,\u201d says Naish.<\/p>\n<p>But how does he know this is how the dinosaur might act? It\u2019s not all guesswork. The answer is based on published research \u2013 much of which Naish has been involved in.<\/p>\n<p>Naish tells us that the answer comes from a combination of factors, particularly their anatomy, and the behaviour of living animals that are similar to these extinct ones.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not an imaginary scenario,\u201d he argues. \u201cThis is entirely backed up by all these different scientific points.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>First, the scientists had to work out how to execute the appearance of the <em>Quetzalcoatlus<\/em>, which was based on <a href=\"\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0002271"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">research from 2008<\/a> that marked a paradigm shift in how researchers think they were built. It showed that their narrow build, with foldable 9m wings on a leggy body, made them incredibly competent terrestrial predators with the ability to fly.<\/p>\n<p>A more recent study, in 2015, investigated what this build would have meant for interactions with other large predators like the <i data-stringify-type=\""italic"\">T.rex<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve both got strengths. They\u2019ve both got possible weaknesses,\u201d said Naish. \u201cBut we\u2019ve argued that the Tyrannosaurus would have second thoughts when confronted with such a tall predator.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the sequence, there is actually more than one of these animals, too, because there is evidence for social behaviour in them.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"> <div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> \n<h4>About our expert<\/h4>\n<p>Darren Naish is a palaeontologist and author of books including <em>Ancient Sea Reptiles<\/em> and the Natural History Museum\u2019s <em>Dinosaurs<\/em> guide. He is the lead consultant for the Apple TV+ <em>Prehistoric Planet<\/em> series.<\/p>\n<p>His research has been published in <em>Science<\/em>, <em>Journal Of Zoology<\/em>, <em>Trends In Evolution And Ecology<\/em>, and <em>PLOS ONE.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/news\/how-sauropod-dinosaurs-got-big\/"\">Size matters: Breakthrough study reveals how super-massive dinosaurs got so big<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/planet-earth\/dinosaurs-didnt-roar-why-many-were-likelier-to-chirp-like-birds\/"\">Dinosaurs didn\u2019t roar: Why many were likelier to chirp like birds<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/nature\/new-visions-dinosaur-book-that-seeks-to-dispel-myths-about-their-appearance\/"\">New visions: Dinosaur book that seeks to dispel myths about their appearance<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> According to Apple TV+’s Prehistoric Planet, the Tyrannosaurus rex was more than willing to run from a fight. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27529,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/the-t-rex-was-a-massive-coward-and-we-have-the-footage-to-prove-it.jpg",1203,512,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/the-t-rex-was-a-massive-coward-and-we-have-the-footage-to-prove-it-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/the-t-rex-was-a-massive-coward-and-we-have-the-footage-to-prove-it-300x128.jpg",300,128,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/the-t-rex-was-a-massive-coward-and-we-have-the-footage-to-prove-it-768x327.jpg",768,327,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/the-t-rex-was-a-massive-coward-and-we-have-the-footage-to-prove-it-1024x436.jpg",800,341,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/the-t-rex-was-a-massive-coward-and-we-have-the-footage-to-prove-it.jpg",1203,512,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/the-t-rex-was-a-massive-coward-and-we-have-the-footage-to-prove-it.jpg",1203,512,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"According to Apple TV+'s Prehistoric Planet, the Tyrannosaurus rex was more than willing to run from a fight.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}