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https://news.utexas.edu/2018/06/20/t-rex-couldn-t-stick-out-its-tongue:
Dinosaurs are often depicted as fierce creatures, baring their teeth, with tongues wildly stretching from their mouths like giant, deranged lizards. But new research reveals a major problem with this classic image: Dinosaurs couldn't stick out their tongues like lizards. Instead, their tongues were probably rooted to the bottoms of their mouths in a manner akin to alligators.
Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and the Chinese Academy of Sciences made the discovery by comparing the hyoid bones — the bones that support and ground the tongue — of modern birds and crocodiles with those of their extinct dinosaur relatives. In addition to challenging depictions of dino tongues, the research proposes a connection on the origin of flight and an increase in tongue diversity and mobility.
The research was published June 20 in the journal PLOS ONE.
The comparison process involved taking high-resolution images of hyoid muscles and bones from 15 modern specimens, including three alligators and 13 bird species as diverse as ostriches and ducks, at the Jackson School’s High-Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography Facility (UTCT). The fossil specimens, most from northeastern China, were scrutinized for preservation of the delicate tongue bones and included small bird-like dinosaurs, as well as pterosaurs and a Tyrannosaurus rex.
The results indicate that hyoid bones of most dinosaurs were like those of alligators and crocodiles — short, simple and connected to a tongue that was not very mobile. Co-author and Jackson School Professor Julia Clarke said that these findings mean that dramatic reconstructions that show dinosaurs with tongues stretching out from between their jaws are wrong.
[...] The study was funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, the Smithsonian Institution and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Journal Reference:
- Zhiheng Li, Zhonghe Zhou, Julia A. Clarke. Convergent evolution of a mobile bony tongue in flighted dinosaurs and pterosaurs. PLOS ONE, 2018; 13 (6): e0198078 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198078
(Score: 3, Informative) by requerdanos on Sunday July 15 2018, @10:32PM (2 children)
I know that this is obvious, but in consideration of future generations and their archaeologists and anthropologists trying to make sense of this story, I would like to point out a few things.
1. Depicting creatures with tongues lolling is generally done to make them appear silly, not fierce. Example: Panting Dog [blogspot.com]
2. Dinosaurs are sometimes depicted as fierce, sometimes as just regular creatures, and sometimes as long-dead skeletons. There is no predominant "fierce" depiction outside fiction, and even there, tongues (not even "wild, stretching" ones) do not generally play a role, their presence being contradictory to fierceness, which would generally be conveyed with teeth, expression, and body language.
3. This introductory sentence is clunky and in general, no one takes it seriously. It is there to set up a strawman ("Man, everyone knows Dinos are really mean and stick out their tongues a lot which is how they are depicted!"). This is pretty much the only source claiming that dinosaurs are fierce because they stick out their tongues and are depicted as such, and it's not a reliable source at that.
4. The conclusion that "Dinosaurs couldn't stick out their tongues" is nonsense, in that only a very few species of "dinosaurs" were studied by the researchers, and nothing like what would be required to make a conclusion about dinosaurs in general.
5. This showmanship via dishonesty was probably done to add "suspense" or "wow factor" or something else not needed nor beneficial to the actual story, which is a ho-hum observation that a few species of dinosaurs investigated happen to appear to have tongues which were attached to the bottoms of their mouths as in modern alligators.
6. A lot of scientific research is tedious and many might consider it potentially boring, but in general it's important, the reward being that our knowledge of the natural world and the surrounding universe is increased. There is not any benefit in lying about the research to deceive people into believing it is more exciting than it is; ever-increasing excitement is not the goal (nor frequently the reward) in scientific inquiry.
Several have pointed out aspects of this, but I did want it on record that the premise of the article appears to be total nonsense. Thank you.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 16 2018, @04:17AM
Youre missing that this is part of a years long effort to deconstruct the Trex stereotype. They cant run fast enough to even catch a human, didnt roar, didnt have lips, looked like a big fat ostrich, and now cant even stick out their tongue if they wanted.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday July 16 2018, @08:09AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves