All in all it was a really interesting ‘autopsy’. Very believable. They took what is known from fossil evidence and added assumptions comparative to existing animals/birds/reptiles. It was quite graphic, very detailed, blood, goo and the team complaining about odor (it was actually made of fiberglass, latex, silicone rubber, and held 34 gallons of stage blood!)
I looked it up to find if the members of the autopsy team were actors or scientists and they were, indeed, actual paleontologists, anatomists and a veterinarian (who reminded me a lot of a combination Gordon Ramsay [sans the foul-mouth] and Steve Irwin.)
This believable full-size, anatomically exact Tyrannosaurus Rex model was based primarily on the discovery of ‘Sue’ (in 1990), one of the most complete T-Rex ever found. Interestingly enough, it was stated they have only been found from southern Canada to Texas.
I could go on and on about how really impressive this show is, like that T-Rex had gastralium (like an extra set of‘belly ribs’) similar to crocodiles, that their teeth were not unlike komodo dragons (having no molars) and were regularly
replaced (like sharks), that evidence has shown it had proto-feathers (at least along it’s head and back, more bristle-like really), that they were most likely both perfect predator/hunters as well as scavengers with an acute sense of smell, sight and hearing, and that they would have seen their prey whether they stood perfectly still or moving (debunking Jurassic Park and come to think of it, the guy seated on the toilet was eaten and he wasn’t moving...plot hole). That was just a small sample of both the facts and theoreticals presented, there was so much more! Can you tell how excited I am about it? :)
Anyways, I’ll stop now (though I could ooze on and bore you to yawns!). If you seriously like dinosaurs and nature/natural history in general, it is well worth watching!
K, just finished watching the conclusion (well, actually the entire thing again). Since no actual fossilized sexual organs of a dinosaur have been found as yet, it is believed (by comparing the facts with known creatures) that they most likely had cloaca (an internal chamber leading to a singular outlet through which eggs or sperm, as well as digestive and urinary waste, exit the body), though the actual sexual act remains a mystery (some birds/fowl have retractable [?] male genitalia, some don't and the pair sort of just rub their openings together and hope for the best).
This T-Rex was female and was pregnant (they opened the egg and the only thing comparable would be an ostrich’s, and interestingly they said female birds, though having two ovaries, only one actually works).
So, how did this animal die, which was the premise of the show? Hmm, let's see, it’s lungs (which, btw, had air sacs, like birds, and is a much more efficient form of respiration) were clear, so it did not smoke, it’s liver was healthy so it was not an alcoholic, it’s heart was normal (4 chambered and therefore warm blooded), and although it had intestinal parasites, that was ruled out as cause of death nor was starvation.
During the final inspection an x-ray of a protrusion in the neck showed it was broken (along with a break in it’s femur discovered earlier) so the deduction was it had fallen and couldn’t get up :) Nah, it is assumed the fall was severe and caused both the broken leg bone and neck, dying almost instantaneously.
So, apparently, according to this, Tyrannosaurus Rex was built much more anatomically efficient than even we are....of course, they are all dead, we are not :) Survival of the cleverest?