http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/2010/02/when-tyrannosaurs-roamed-new-mexico/ Where Paleontology Meets Pop Culture Sat, 22 Dec 2012 16:48:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/2010/02/when-tyrannosaurs-roamed-new-mexico/comment-page-1/#comment-1544 Anonymous Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:34:41 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/?p=2711#comment-1544 Just a hypothesis, but perhaps the reason tyrannosauroids in the Western U.S. developed more robust snouts was to increase the variety of large prey in their diet. In Appalachia there was a lot more land, and hadrosaurs were by far the most common dinosaur around. Tyrannosauroids could have gotten away with having lightweight skulls because their prey wasn't (relatively) that tough. But in the west you have ankylosaurids, nodosaurids (though some scrappy nodosaurid remains are known from the east), ceratopsids (both centrosaurine and chasmosaurine), and all sorts of other heavily armored herbivores. In an environment with such a small area as western North America, perhaps tyrannosauroids couldn't be choosy in what kind of prey they took down, and were forced to develop adaptations that would give them a fighting chance against a ceratopsian or an ankylosaur. Just a hypothesis, but perhaps the reason tyrannosauroids in the Western U.S. developed more robust snouts was to increase the variety of large prey in their diet. In Appalachia there was a lot more land, and hadrosaurs were by far the most common dinosaur around. Tyrannosauroids could have gotten away with having lightweight skulls because their prey wasn’t (relatively) that tough. But in the west you have ankylosaurids, nodosaurids (though some scrappy nodosaurid remains are known from the east), ceratopsids (both centrosaurine and chasmosaurine), and all sorts of other heavily armored herbivores. In an environment with such a small area as western North America, perhaps tyrannosauroids couldn’t be choosy in what kind of prey they took down, and were forced to develop adaptations that would give them a fighting chance against a ceratopsian or an ankylosaur.

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