Scotty, the largest Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found, has provided new insights into the circumstances of its death approximately 66 million years ago. Recent analysis of Scotty’s remains indicates that it died from a rib injury, which was likely inflicted during a confrontation with another dinosaur.
However, the most unique feature of the fossil was that it still had literal meat on the bone, something that is almost never observed in palaeontology. Most specimens lose their tissue over time. They used neutron imaging with the help of researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Mauricio Barbi, professor of physics at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, described the discovery by saying it was like winning the lottery.
Because the remains were fragile, palaeontologists had to find a way to examine the preserved tissue without damaging the fossil. The impressive T Rex skeleton was found in 1991 in prehistoric Saskatchewan, Canada. Dubbed Scotty, the specimen reportedly measured 43 feet long and was estimated to have weighed around 19,500 pounds when alive, making it roughly the size of two elephants.
He said Scotty’s rib contained a vast network of mineralised blood vessels that had never before been observed in a fossil.
