Tyrannosaurus Rex Brow discussion

[SirGrooot]

Hey everybody! I had a long discussion with my girlfriend about how the 'image' of the Tyrannosaurus has been skewed by the overwhelming success of the Jurassic Park design. As someone who enjoys dinosaur collectibles, I was explaining how many of the high dollar and/or quality Tyrannosaurus collectibles showcase the skull shape that was showcased in the JP franchise rather than the scientifically accurate one. Looking at an actual Tyrannosaurus skull, its clear there are no signs of those ridges. In fact I recall in some behind the scenes bit of JP, they admitted to adding those eye ridges for the sole purpose of making the Rex more menacing. With all of this said my girlfriend made the point that all we have is bones. Looking at a human skeleton you cannot determine the shape of their ears or nose. Who is to say that the Rex 'could' have had eye ridges reminiscent of those shown in JP? My point was that there is no evidence to back up that he had such ridges, but she countered saying that there is no evidence to say that the rex didn't have them.

Some of you call me out and say "there are plenty of scientifically accurate" rex collectibles, but I simply haven't seen them. So forgive me if I'm missing a wave of Rex merch that doesnt involve only skeletons. I am a fan of the 'Hollywood' Rex, especially since he's what the average person is exposed to often, but I do have interest in the conclusions scientists have reached about how the Rex might have actually looked with flesh and skin.

What is your input on this matter?

[Neosodon]

Although there is no fossil evidence of the ridges I don't think that they really detract from the scientific accuracy of a model. Ridges could have provided some protection against the glare of the sun. Some lizards have them so they aren't just a completely imagined up feature. The ridges on some T. rex figures seem a bit exaggerated but I find a ridge of some sort perfectly acceptable for a scientifically accurate model.

[stargatedalek]

The problem with the JP styled ridge is that it covers the entire back half of the upper surface of the skull even extending into what should be neck musculature rather than just being over the eyes.



This creates a jarring disconnect between the neck and skull which is not very realistic.

As for modern scientifically accurate figures, Safari made a pretty nice one last year, and CollectA has four to choose from; a juvenile, a small figure of the adult, a larger figure of the adult, and a corpse. The CollectA adults are fairly shrink-wrapped, though it makes sense on the corpse.

[Lanthanotus]

I liked the T. rex design JP came up with in the 90's, however, I still get sick seeing those many copies of that design now, almost a quarter century later. While I like the newest attempts of CollectA and Safari on the species (despite being very skeptic of the full coat of fuzz) I find the heads still being quite reministcent of the JP design. They are good/altered enough to be models of their own, but on the other hand I have prepared lots of skulls of different species of recent animals and I can tell you theres a lot of soft tissues around those bones that disguise the shape of a skull quite well. That being said I am tempted not to reject older reconstructions as those of Charles R. Knight or Zdenek Burian. Sure, features as stereoscopic sight have to be in mind, but when it comes to bulking out a skull with jaw muscles (I mean come on, that's what all those T. rex docutainments are about, aren't they?), lips and other tissues that may not even have an obvious function on a first glimpse, we should be way more generous than we are right now.

I agree with stargatedalek that the JP style is misleading as the spot over/behind the eyes would need to be bulked out with neck muscles, however, ridges being scales and those sit on the top of the skin rather than being anchored on bones, so old Rexy could still have those on thop of bulky muscles. It may be T. rex had none at all, maybe it had some. For all we know they could even had been long and protuberant as a Green Iguana's. Being a very big animal and most likely a predator of very big prey aswell (also quite a fighter amongst his own kin), it is imo reasonable to assume a robust padding around the face rather than protubing scales and ridges.