New Research Suggests That T-Rex Had Lips

Photo Credit: Mark P. Witton/National Geographic

When the formidable creature Tyrannosaurus rex is mentioned, the image that could come to mind is of a gigantic scaly lizard chasing Chris Pratt. In modern media, the vast majority of dinosaurs have been depicted as terrifying monsters with bony, hairless, and leathery bodies. However, modern studies have shown that that might not be the case.

The time that dinosaurs roamed the Earth was far before even the earliest forms of humans and many other modern animals. The only visual depiction of dinosaurs comes from bits and pieces of deceased dinosaurs which were preserved under just the right conditions in the form of fossils. 

However, soft tissue such as fat, muscle, or skin is incapable of being fossilized, so all that is left to reconstruct the dinosaurs are skeletal models that disregard the missing tissues. This causes many possibilities to be missed when considering the appearances of the dinosaurs, such as the chance of them having lips.

Recent developments in the paleontological community include the theory that many dinosaurs, including the T-Rex, had lips. In the journal Science, researchers have recently shown that after examining a tooth that had been in the mouth of the tyrannosaur Daspletosaurus for 500 days, it showed minimal wearing. This is atypical of animals whose teeth’s enamel is considered to be exposed. 

This was consistent with other teeth of theropods, including that of a T-Rex. Co-author of the article and paleontologist at the University of Portsmouth Mark Witton said, “We’ve really put some new data on the table that I think makes it now pretty indefensible to have the goofy-looking theropods with their teeth hanging out.” 

The scientific community is working towards reworking the idea of what a dinosaur looks like to move to a more realistic model using the limited physical evidence available. However, some are not convinced. Thomas Carr, a vertebrate paleontologist at Carthage College doesn’t find this study persuasive. In 2017, he and his colleagues published a study claiming that theropods such as the T-Rex had faces similar to crocodiles and that they were scaly and lipless. 

For both sides of the argument, it is hard to tell which possibility is correct without definite evidence to corroborate the theories.