Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Tyrant King: (Life of the Past)

With its massive head, enormous jaws, and formidable teeth, Tyrannosaurus rex has long been the young person's favorite creepy carnivore in the Mesozoic zoo. Nor has T. rex been ignored by the scientific community, as this new collection amply demonstrates. Scientists explore such questions as why T. rex had such small forelimbs; how the dinosaur moved; what bone pathologies tell us about life in the Cretaceous; and whether T. rex was a predator, a scavenger, or both. There are reports on newly discovered skeletons, on variation and sexual dimorphism, and how the big beasts chewed. The methods used by the contributors to unlock the mysteries of T. rex range from "old fashioned" stratigraphy to contemporary computer modeling. Together they yield a wealth of new information about one of the dinosaur world's most famous carnivores. An enclosed CD-ROM presents additional photographic and filmed reconstructions of the mighty beast.

Table of Contents:
Contents Supplemental CD-Rom Contents Contributors Preface Institutional Abbreviations 1. One Hundred Years of Tyrannosaurus rex: The SkeletonsNeal L. Larson 2. Wyoming's Dynamosaurus imperiosus and Other Early Discoveries of Tyrannosaurus rex in the Rocky Mountain WestBrent H. Breithaupt, Elizabeth H. Southwell, and Neffra A. Matthews 3. How Old Is T. rex? Challenges with the Dating of Terrestrial Strata Deposited during the Maastrichtian Stage of the Cretaceous PeriodKirk Johnson 4. Preliminary Account of the Tyrannosaurid Pete from the Lance Formation of WyomingKraig Derstler and John M. Myers 5. Taphonomy of the Tyrannosaurus rex Peck's Rex from the Hell Creek Formation of MontanaKraig Derstler and John M. Myers 6. Taphonomy and Environment of Deposition of a Juvenile Tyrannosaurid Skeleton from the Hell Creek Formation (Latest Maastrichtian) of Southeastern MontanaMichael D. Henderson and William H. Harrison 7. One Pretty Amazing T. rexMary Higby Schweitzer, Jennifer L. Wittmeyer, and John R. Horner 8. Variation and Sexual Dimorphism in Tyrannosaurus rexPeter Larson 9. Why Tyrannosaurus rex Had Puny Arms: An Integral Morphodynamic Solution to a Simple Puzzle in Theropod PaleobiologyMartin Lockley, Reiji Kukihara, and Laura Mitchell 10. Looking Again at the Forelimb of Tyrannosaurus rexChristine Lipkin and Kenneth Carpenter 11. Rex, Sit: Digital Modeling of Tyrannosaurus rex at RestKent A. Stevens, Peter Larson, Eric D. Wills, and Art Anderson 12. T. rex Speed TrapPhillip L. Manning 13. Atlas of the Skull Bones of Tyrannosaurus rexPeter Larson 14. Palatal Kinesis of Tyrannosaurus rexHans C. E. Larsson 15. Reconstruction of the Jaw Musculature of Tyrannosaurus rexRalph E. Molnar 16. Vestigialism in a DinosaurWilliam L. Abler 17. Tyrannosaurid Pathologies as Clues to Nature and Nurture in the CretaceousBruce M. Rothschild and Ralph E. Molnar 18. The Extreme Lifestyles and Habits of the Gigantic Tyrannosaurid Superpredators of the Late Cretaceous of North America and AsiaGregory S. Paul 19. An Analysis of Predator-Prey Behavior in a Head-to-Head Encounter between Tyrannosaurus rex and TriceratopsJohn Happ 20. A Critical Reappraisal of the Obligate Scavenging Hypothesis for Tyrannosaurus rex and Other Tyrant DinosaursThomas R. Holtz Jr. 21. Tyrannosaurus rex: A Century of CelebrityDonald F. Glut Index

About the Author :
Peter Larson is founder and president of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota, whose staff was responsible for excavating the T. rex known as "Stan." He lives in Hill City, South Dakota. Kenneth Carpenter is the dinosaur paleontologist for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. He is author of Eggs, Nests, and Baby Dinosaurs (IUP, 2000) and editor of The Carnivorous Dinosaurs (IUP, 2005) and The Armored Dinosaurs (IUP, 2001). He lives in Aurora, Colorado.

Review :
"Tyrannosaurus rex is unquestionably the most charismatic dinosaur, the star of countless Hollywood monster movies. In reality this dinosaur was no monster, but an animal trying to meet the same survival challenges faced by other species, both living and extinct. The contributors to this book shed considerable light on what life was like for one of the most spectacular predators of all time." James O. Farlow, co-editor,The Complete Dinosaur