Some large, meat-eating dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex had keyhole-shaped eye sockets, and reconstructions suggest this helped them bite with greater force
The unusual opening in their skulls may be the result of an evolutionary trade-off between larger eyes and more powerful bite forces. Computer models suggest that a smaller eye allowed for additional muscle attachments in the skull that would have allowed these dinosaurs to evolve stronger bites, whereas a larger orbit, and therefore a larger eye, wouldn’t have provided much additional benefit.
In stress tests of skulls with different eye shapes, the keyhole orbits were better able to dissipate the stresses of biting hard than round ones. “Eyes are physiologically very expensive and there is likely a compromise between getting larger eyes, which could enable better sight, versus stress reduction,” says Lautenschlager, with the latter being more important for these carnivores.at the University of Bristol, UK, who wasn’t involved in the work. The juveniles of dinosaurs such asgrew up, however, its skull shape and anatomy changed dramatically.
“Juveniles preyed on agile, small prey, while adults dispatched large prey with a single bite,” says Rowe, and the orbit shape played a part in this menu shift.
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