Teeth are probably one of the first things that come to mind when you imagine a T-Rex. But now experts say that unlike the film Jurassic park, where the tyrannosaurus' toothy grin is ever-present, the creature likely had equally big lips to cover those chompers up. The paleontologists say t-rex wasn’t the only creature with dino lips either, likely all theropods had them.
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00:00These teeth are probably one of the first things that come to mind when you imagine
00:06a T-Rex.
00:07But now experts say that unlike the film Jurassic Park, where the Tyrannosaurus's toothy grin
00:12is ever present, the creature likely had equally big lips to cover those chompers up.
00:16The paleontologists say T-Rex wasn't the only creature with dino lips either.
00:20Likely all theropods had them, with the researchers writing in their report that there really
00:24has never been a dedicated study investigating this before.
00:27That is until now.
00:28They found that teeth wear differently in lipless animals like crocodiles when compared
00:32to carnivorous dinosaurs, with one of the study's authors adding, as any dentist will
00:36tell you, saliva is important for maintaining the health of your teeth.
00:39They also found holes in the jaws of dinosaurs where they expect nerves to run through, and
00:43they were more lizard-like in the T-Rex than even modern day crocodiles as well.
00:47The researchers say that T-Rex lips were likely most akin to those of the tuatara, a rare
00:51reptile that is only found on the island nation of New Zealand.
00:55Going on to say that while the teeth of a T-Rex look absolutely gigantic to us, relative
00:59to their own size, their teeth are no larger than those of a lizard.