Image of two dinosaurs facing each other, one with closed mouth, other showing teeth

Can you spot the difference? The drawing on the right shows a new way of thinking about T. rex.  

Courtesy of Mark P. Witton/University of Portsmouth 

Did Dinos Have Lips?

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The T. rex

Quick! Name the scariest thing about a T. rex. Did you say the dinosaur’s long, sharp teeth? You’re not alone if you did!

In many movies and drawings, scary T. rex teeth are easy to see. The dino’s long chompers are often shown poking out of its mouth. 

But some paleontologists say those drawings are wrong. They think the T. rex had big lips that covered its teeth. 

No one knows exactly what their mouths looked like. After all, dinos became extinct, or died out, about 65 million years ago. But a new study tried to find out if T. rex had teeth that stuck out. The study compared fossils of dinosaur teeth with crocodile teeth.

Scientists discovered the two kinds of teeth didn’t have the same type of damage. Crocodile teeth often break during eating and fighting. That’s because crocs don’t have big lips to protect their teeth.

But experts saw less damage on the dino teeth. That led them to believe that the T. rex had big lips. They hid and protected its teeth—and maybe made the dino less scary! 

  1. According to the article, why don’t scientists know exactly what T-rex mouths looked like? Use text evidence.
  2. What can you learn from the two T-rex drawings at the top of the page?
  3. Why do some scientists think T-rex had lips covering its teeth?
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