Bone Biography

Through a great injury to his leg bones, Peter, our first T. rex in residence tells us a tragic story of great suffering. Peter’s femur and tibia reveal a devastating injury which likely lead to his death.

With evidence of crushing, piercing, and scraping deep into his bones – this injury was no accident. Peter was the victim of a prehistoric dino-cide, and the culprit: a fellow T. rex. Close inspection of the site of injury reveals bitemarks which match the size and shape of a T. rex bite, likely the only creature with a biteforce strong enough to crush through bone in this way.

With no trace of repair around the site of impact, we can determine that Peter didn’t survive this blow, dying before his bones were able to heal.

Further toothmarks found in the area of injury suggest that soon after his death, a juvenile member of the Tyrannosaurus family made a snack of Peter, though not quite a whole meal. We can only guess at the reasons for the sudden loss of appetite, but T. rex was probably not the safest choice of protein, with potential risks of disease, mutually shared parasites, and the threat posed by other predators who may have loomed nearby.  

Buried within Barbara’s bones is a secret that would have otherwise been invisible without the advent of modern science. When CT scanning the site of her injury, researchers discovered another fascinating chapter of Barbara’s life on earth: motherhood.

Having overcome the physical trauma of her foot injury, Barbara was able to heal well enough to mate, and to carry young. To prepare for offspring, T. rex, much the same as modern birds, store some of the necessary nutrients within their bones. Calcium, which is required to produce hard eggshells, is stored throughout hollow spaces in Barbara's bones. Further confirmed by keratin-sulfate testing, Barbara's status as an expectant mother puts her in an incredibly rare cohort of Tyrannosaurus rex - with only two other known pregnant specimens on scientific record.