Bite Me!

Scientists prove T-rex had most powerful bite 

Scientists say they have proof that the Tyrannosaurus rex, the dinosaur adored by children and makers of plastic toys, had the most powerful bite of any creature that lived on land.

The bite of a grown T-rex was up to 10 times that of a Mississippi alligator, exerting a force of nearly six tonnes - the weight of an elephant - on a single tooth, according to a study published on Wednesday.

The estimate comes from a 3-D computer simulation of a T-rex head, with reconstructions of its bones, jaw movement and muscle power, say University of Liverpool palaeontologists led by Karl Bates.

"Models predict that adult T-rex generated sustained bite forces of 35,000-57,000 Newtons at a single posterior tooth, by far the highest bite forces estimated for any terrestrial animal," says the paper.

By comparison, humans exert only 70 to 100 kilos of force on a single tooth.

So why do they mix units here, Newtons, units of force (kg-m/sec2), and mere mass, kilograms?  Oh, that's right, reporters are ignorant, and they won't let the real scientists edit their text.

The findings could settle a long-running debate among palaeontologists.

Some have contended that the T-rex had only a modest bite, and this would have suited a scavenger that feasted on the dead or dying.

Others, though, argued that the dino's musculo-skeletal design pointed to a powerful jaw able to kill with a single bite, which meant it was definitely a predator.

One of the most powerful bites among modern predators comes from the hyena, also a  scavenger when scavenging works, so I would hardly regard that as a terribly strong argument.  A bite that can kill with a single bite can also serve to chop up bones of an animal already dead by other causes.

Now, what you've been waiting for; the dino babe...  I sure hope she's good with that knife.