Hell Creek Page 3

Late Maastrichtian  from the Dinosaur Collector
The Maastrichtian is the the last part of the Late Cretaceous from 71.3 to 65 million years ago.  There are about 12 dinosaurs species found in the last Hell Creek or Lancian sediments of North America.   This has been interpreted as showing dinosaur populations were under stress as diversity decreased.  The alternative is that the retreat of the inland sea created a large relatively uniform habitat that favored the less speciation.  Additionally we little or no information about what was happening outside the Hell Creek formation.     Updated122005


Master pages Late Cretaceous Diorama pages

Use the links below to see collector pages outside the Hell Creek series. Move your mouse over the pciture to find hot spots for more info. Use the arrows at the bottom to cycle through the Hell Creek Diorama.


Was Tyrannosaurus a predator or only a scavenger?  The teeth of Tyrannosaurus are different from other large theropods.  They seem to be made for crunching up bone.  This reminds one of the adaptations of the modern Hyena.  It doesn't seem to be built for speed but the two most common herbivores do not seem to have been very fast either.  One idea is once you reach a certain size you just can't move at more than a trot.  The proportions of younger animals seem to be different and could mean they were more agile.  Perhaps the younger members ran down the prey?  The larger adults then could claim the carcass like male lions do.

Tyrannosaurus Triceratops JP play set Tyrannosaurus Bullyland Micro Tiere Tyrannosaurus Triceratops from Bandai

Adolescent JP play set Tyrannosaurus, Adult JP from series of mini JP figures some used with Action figures.  Center is a Bullyland Micro Tiere Tyrannosaurus.  The foreground Triceratops is the Bandai baby figure.

  It may not have taken much speed to catch a Triceratops or Edmontosaurus.   Another argument put forward is that Tyrannosaurus's small forearms were too small to be of use in capturing prey.  Edmontosaurus seems to have been defenseless so it may not have required forearms.  Triceratops looks to have been formidable prey but  the ability to gallop or run quickly has been contested convincingly.  The question seems to be were the front legs directly under the body allowing it to gallop or sprawled.  The first certainly looks better and there was supposed to be a new find that supported this placement of the front legs.

Starting on the left are the new Kaiyodo Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops premiums.  The two small Triceratops are from the Jurassic Park III figures.  Continuing left is the Battat Boston Museum series mini Triceratops and a Play Vision American Natural History series Tyrannosaurus.  Finally there is a Bullyland Triceratops from their medium figure line with a JP3 Tyrannosaurus.

One popular idea is that Tyrannosaurus hunted as couples like modern hawks and eagles accompanied by adolescents.  The is part of the predatory bird model.  Track ways which tell us more about behavior than the fossils.  Tracks indicate large predators move around in groups of 0ne to three animals.    

Triceratops Tyrannosaurus UHA series 5 Tyrannosaurus Furuta Tyrannosaurus UHA Triceratops Furuta Triceratops Bandai Triceratops

UHA series 5 and Furuta  Tyrannosaurus.  UHA series 5, Furuta and Bandai Triceratops.

If Tyrannosaurus wasn't the carnivore who was?  The only other candidate was the raptor DromaeosaurusDromaeosaurus is rare in the fossil record and seems too small to bring down Edmontosaurus let alone Triceratops.  The other puzzle is why didn't the ceratopsians spread outside North America.  The lack of definitive ceratopsians from Asia, Europe or South America is puzzling.  Certainly Tyrannosaurs, hadrosaurs and titanosaurs were moving between continents.  What was it that made triceratops and it relatives unable to expand their range?  Maybe Triceratops wasn't so hard to hunt after all.  

Here is a wide selection of  Triceratops figures from the mini lines.  Starting with Bullyland, Disney, a red and black K&M figures, and back is a Blue Box.  Then we have Micromachine National geographic, PlayVision, Safari Habitat and last a JP 2 playset figure.  The Tyrannosaurus is a Safari Habitat, the Ankylosaurus  and green Torosaurus from Bullyland .  Last is the Toys and Things Torosaurus.

There has been some speculation that Tyrannosaurus chicks were self feeding specializing in insects and small vertebrates.  Recent studies of baby T rex teeth seem to indicate they wee eating the same food as the adults.  There is some evidence from fossil finds that tyrannosaurs formed families of mixed age groups dominated by large females.   Even more intriguing is there were more than one type of large Tyrannosaurus.  The Samson T rex at the Carnegie has a different number of teeth from the type specimen and a rough or rugose area around the end of the snout that supported a horn.

Tyrannosaurus JP Tyrannosaurus Bandai Tyrannosaurus with lambosaurine carcass JP Tyrannosaurus chicks

Bandai Tyrannosaurus with lambosaurine carcass.  The two chicks are from a JP figure set some of which were also included with the action figures.  The adult JP Tyrannosaurus  from a mini playset.

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