Friday, October 26, 2012

T-Rex vs. Triceratops...Who Ya Got?


Fox News - It was the greatest showdown of the dinosaur kingdom. The carnivorous apex predator Tyrannosaurus versus the heavily shielded plant-eating Triceratops. But scientists were never quite sure how the fearsome T-rex could penetrate the armored three-horned herbivore when it came time for dinner -- until now. Denver Fowler and his colleagues at the Museum of the Rockies last week presented the first study done on a collection of bite-scarred fossils to get an idea of how the legendary Tyrannosaurus fed. Gruesomely, Fowler explains, though the work is still in its early stages. By studying consistent sets of bitemarks, Fowler and his team concluded that the T-rex feasted on the Triceratops by popping off its head. “It's gruesome, but the easiest way to do this was to pull the head off,” Fowler told Nature. Since the bite-marks didn’t show signs of healing, it means they were made when the dino was already dead. Some scars could only have been made if the Triceratops had been decapitated -- in order to get to the nutrient rich neck muscles.

How ruthless is that? Just popping the head off its most noble adversary like a prehistoric pez dispenser. Pure awesomeness.

I'm going to be honest, as a kid I always rooted for the Triceratops. Just the blue collar worker of the dino-world. Keeps his horns down and goes about his business, not afraid to scrap from time to time when the situation calls for it. All around good dude.  T-Rex just seemed like a bully out picking on everyone, but at the end of the day was probably just compensating for his tiny hands.

Well I guess fucking not. Guy wasn't king of the dinosaurs for nothing. Just popping his foods head off for sport. Makes me kinda like him more than the Triceratops. Yea there's something noble about rooting for the underdog, it's natural, we do it in sports all the time...In fact growing up I often thought of the Triceratops as Agassi and T-Rex as Sampras...and I hated Sampras. Just cold and calculating...no real emotion. Plus he was stuffing Ms. Vaughn which pissed me off even more.  So I always rooted for Agassi...but honestly, if Sampras had been as much of a boss as the T-Rex was? I'd have been his most loyal follower.

So there it is, I'm officially switching allegiances. I'm taking the T-Rex. It's like rooting for the most dominant boxer in his prime. It's really one of the only situations in sports I can think of where the majority roots for the favorite...and I guess that makes T-Rex the Tyson of the sporting world, which fits. Tyson compensated for that lisp and T-Rex is compensating for those dainty little girl hands.