Neutron scans reveal fatal rib injury in the world’s largest T. rex specimen
Scientists used neutron imaging to examine preserved tissue on the T. rex known as Scotty, discovering a cracked rib from a fight that caused its death.
The massive T. rex specimen dubbed Scotty, unearthed in 1991 in Saskatchewan, Canada, still harbored remnants of soft tissue on its bones. A team led by Mauricio Barbi and doctoral candidate Jerit Mitchell employed neutron imaging at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to generate detailed three-dimensional images of a rib and its surrounding mineralized blood vessels. The scans revealed a cracked rib that had begun to heal, indicating the animal was engaged in a violent encounter with another dinosaur when it died.
The injury was insufficiently repaired, leading to Scotty’s demise in a nearby salt marsh. The researchers highlight the potential of such non-destructive techniques to reveal hidden biological information in other fossil collections.
Why it matters
The finding shows how cutting-edge imaging can reveal cause-of-death details in ancient fossils, expanding our understanding of dinosaur behavior.
In this story
