Science Daily has a post about Tyrannosaurs rex and how it might have handled the heat of the Cretaceous.  As an animal gets bigger, it gets harder and harder to dump heat.  That’s because the volume of its body grows faster than surface area as the body gets bigger.  Researchers at the University of Missouri, Ohio University, and the University of Florida have an original idea about how one of the largest therapods cooled itself.  The original paper appeared in the journal The Anatomical Record, 2019.  A related video has more details.

In the past, scientists believed two large holes in the roof of a T. rex‘s skull — called the dorsotemporal fenestra — were filled with muscles that assist with jaw movements.

But that assertion puzzled Casey Holliday, a professor of anatomy in the MU School of Medicine and lead researcher on the study.

“It’s really weird for a muscle to come up from the jaw, make a 90-degree turn, and go along the roof of the skull,” Holliday said. “Yet, we now have a lot of compelling evidence for blood vessels in this area, based on our work with alligators and other reptiles.”

Using thermal imaging — devices that translate heat into visible light — researchers examined alligators at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in Florida. They believe their evidence offers a new theory and insight into the anatomy of a T. rex‘s head.