DinoFest 2018 Speaker: Paul Gignac
DinoBite — 3:30 p.m.
"A Royal Appetite: HowTyrannosaurus rex Dined on the Bones of Cretaceous Dinosaurs"
North American tyrannosaurids, including the giant theropod Tyrannosaurus rex, stand out from other large carnivorous dinosaurs for biting deeply into bones, pulverizing and digesting them. How T. rex was able to gain sustenance from large dinosaur skeletons has been a mystery—until now. Dr. Gignac explains how this unique carnivore was able to generate an 8,000 pound bite force and use repetitive dog-like biting to finely fragment and consume the bones of its prey.
Dr. Paul Gignac is a field paleontologist and an Assistant Professor of Anatomy and Vertebrate Paleontology at the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences. He has excavated dinosaurs and other vertebrates from Mesozoic localities in Africa and North American, most recently hunting for polar dinosaurs from within the Arctic Circle on the North Slope of Alaska. His primary research interest is in the evolution of extreme performance, including the development and function of Nature’s most impressive feeding systems, like the snap-trap jaws of crocodilians and the bone-crunching teeth of their dinosaur relatives.