Predator Still to Me

By Eric Mikols

When I was a kid (not to say I’m old now), there were a few immutable facts that I lived with. I knew, for a fact, that the earth was round. I also knew, for a fact, that George Washington was our first president. For a fact, I knew that two plus two always equaled four and it was utter nonsense to think it would ever equal more or less. There was no arguing these facts, and why would I want to? They made sense and the world worked fine with them. When I was a kid, I knew for a fact that the Tyrannosaurus Rex was the most fearsome predator the world has ever seen.

Now they tell me that he wasn’t.

Jack Horner has become a betrayer to me. As I grew up, he was the man I wanted to be. A famous paleontologist: foremost in his field with both finds and knowledge. He was a consultant for “Jurassic Park” and has gained a strong reputation for his theory on dinosaur growth. Then, as if he were mad at me, as if I had wronged him, he took my world and tried to shatter it to pieces. His 1994 article "Steak knives, beady eyes, and tiny little arms (a portrait of Tyrannosaurus as a scavenger)" in The Paleontological Society Special Publication was hate mail seemingly sent to my heart and childhood. Though no one else read it like I did, I still imagine the conversation he would have with my younger self;

“What’s your favorite dinosaur, young and wide-eyed Eric?”
“Gee, golly, and gosh, it’s always gonna be the T-Rex!”
“Why so?”
“Well, because he’s the best one there is! He’s the meanest, biggest, and coolest dinosaur ever and the biggest predator of all time!”
“He was a scavenger.”

And the world fell apart and I didn’t know what to hold to. I didn’t believe it (and still don’t). The Tyrannosaur couldn’t be a scavenger. He was the Tyrant Lizard.

I’m not going to say Jack Horner doesn’t know his facts. He’s still an expert of Hadrosaurs and his discovery of the Maiasaura is one the most important findings for dinosaur parenting behavior (and he should stick with mothering herbivores). But, he’s obviously wrong on this point of the Tyrannosaurus and I hope he someday recants (after all, even villains like Darth Vader could turn around near the end, so why not Jack?).

Horner argues that the T-Rex was a scavenger because its arms were too short to grab onto prey and hold it with any sort of grip. Well, that seems a little biased to me. If we were to follow Jack’s reasoning, those with short arms couldn’t play basketball, wrestle, or swing on a rope. Say we concede that the T-Rex had short arms (he did, after all). What of the shark? The most fearsome predator of the sea and it has no arms at all! Am I supposed to believe that a Tyrannosaur, with a mouth the size of small car, one that puts Jaws to shame, couldn’t do the same job as a big fish? Horner needs to stop limiting one’s ability by their slight hindrances.

Jack Horner also suggests that the Rex was a scavenger because its olfactory bulbs (the glands that contribute to scent) gave it a great sense of smell, allowing it to scout out carcasses over large distances. He compares our dinosaur king to vultures. Well, that sure sounds like a reason for something to scavenge; even though it could use the same sense of smell to find fresh prey, or other Tyrannosaurs (who would be a threat since they were predators). Horner’s first argument is to attack the T-Rex’s disability, and his second argument is to attack its strength? Where’s the consistency?

We could go on with Horner’s defenses but they all fall apart. Weak teeth, slow speed, and a digestion system that can handle bone marrow all crop up in his crazy, angry mind. Weak teeth? I can crack a Jolly Rancher in half with my molars and I’m just a puny human. Don’t tell me the T-Rex had weak teeth, especially considering that theropods (bipedal dinosaurs) replace theirs rapidly. Slow speed? What about the fact that his big brain (one of the largest of the Cretaceous period) would allow him to be more clever and stealthy than his smaller brained contemporaries? That sounds like turning a weakness into strength to me. Digesting bone marrow? Why wouldn’t the T-Rex try to get the most bang for his buck? Does Horner mention the T-Rex had binocular vision that looked straight ahead, as a good predator should? Or that other dinosaurs have been found with wounds from a Tyrannosaurus bite before death? No. He doesn’t want to look at both sides like a reasonable person.

Myself, I’m a reasonable person. I’m willing to concede (though with heartache) that the T-Rex wasn’t perfect. It had a big brain for its time, yes, but it would be outsmarted by today’s house cat. I was even able to hold myself together when they discovered bigger carnivorous dinosaurs like the Spinosaurus and the Giganotosaurus (though, with a name like that, it sounds like Giganotosaurus had a bigger ego as well). But, these are points I’m willing to recognize.

Let’s take science out of the equation and focus on some of the deeper, more meaningful ideas presented here. By making the Tyrannosaur a scavenger, we are taking the coolest dinosaur that ever lived and making him a lowly carrion feeder. We are taking a king and making it a pauper. This isn’t like arguing for the roundness of the planet, where people become afraid to travel because they think they’ll fall off the flat world. No, this is taking something great and trying to bring it down to our level. Why? Was the idea of the Tyrannosaurus Rex too freighting for the world, and Horner? Did we have to make him a scavenger to stop him from haunting our dreams? It seems selfish that, in order for us to sleep better, we make these comments and theories about a predator that’s been dead for years and can’t defend its own appropriately given name!

I know this slaps Jack Horner in the face to read, but I feel no remorse. My face is still red from his backhanded attack of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. No, Jack Horner, the T-Rex was not a scavenger. You are. You scavenge the world for dreams and truths and try to tear them apart. There was no victory to be had in proving the Tyrannosaurus as a scavenger. The only thing you gained was destroying my childhood. As a young boy, I grew up idolizing the Rex, wishing to see it in all its glory. He was my celebrity, my hero. The T-Rex was the master of all he surveyed and you shattered that image like broken glass. As I try to pick up the pieces, you, Mr. Horner, stand over and laugh, knowing that my childhood is among those shards, unable to ever be repaired. Perhaps, one day, the world will see you as a fraud and traitor to your own field. Perhaps, you will be knocked down as you did to my favorite dinosaur, having your colleagues looking at you as nothing more than an intern who got lucky in the 1970s (when you stumbled upon the Maiasaura nest). The books will not read you as a hero, but as little Jack Horner, who sat in his corner, eating his undeserved pie, who looked in my heart, tore it apart, and filled the world with his lies.




Horner, Jack R. "Steak knives, beady eyes, and tiny little arms (a portrait of Tyrannosaurus as a scavenger)". The Paleontological Society Special Publication 7 (1994) 157–164. Print.