T. rex had three fingers after all
Posted by Shannon
Tags: Dinosaurs, fingers, paleontology, Science“It’s unquestionably the metacarpal,” Quinlan told Discovery News. No previous T. rex remains have ever been found with a third metacarpal, despite the fact that the other bones suggested its presence. “There is a notch in the side of the second metacarpal that was just begging to have something fit into it.”
The revised anatomy of the hand suggests there was a very strong tendon that attached to second metacarpal, giving the hand a pretty decent grip, she said. Still, the puny limbs were almost certainly not used by T. rex to grapple with prey or kill.
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That said, the new finger bone is not going to cause much change to reconstructions of T. rex, says Hartman. Throughout the evolution of meat-eating dinosaurs there was a trend towards fewer fingers, with the earliest having five fingers and the T. rex having two. This newfound nubbin of a third finger was already on its way out, and did not stick out much, he said.
“In another 10 million years they would have lost (the third finger) completely,” said Hartman. Unfortunately for them, however, the age of dinosaurs ended before that could happen.