Was T. Rex a Hunter or a Scavenger?

Debate on the topic of whether T. Rex was a hunter or scavenger has been going on for years. What side are you on?

If it was indeed 9 ton I'd say both. It just wouldn't be fast enough to catch something like an Edmontosaurus.

If it's 5-7 ton I'd say hunter.

Well, I wrote a 7 page essay on this topic for a composition class, and from all the research I did, I've come to the conclusion that it was both.

First off, while Jack Horner's one point that it wouldn't be able to catch itself if it fell when running is true, he doesn't look at the fact that there's animals today that can't catch themselves if they fall and would injure themselves as a result (example- giraffes) but still run all the time. Second, to be a successful predator, you don't have to run. You can be an ambush predator like an alligator.

If it was indeed 9 ton I'd say both. It just wouldn't be fast enough to catch something like an Edmontosaurus.

Third, even if they had to run, they were fast enough to catch their prey. Although T. rex has been proven to be slow, they're prey was actually even slower.

Fourth, hadrosaurs have been found with healed T. Rex bite marks, meaning the T. Rex bit them when they were alive. So its pretty obvious they hunted their prey.
Pic of bite mark:


However, I do think they scavanged at times too. Why? Because there is practically no predator alive today that doesn't scavange. Sure, some scavange more than others, but almost none of them purely hunt for food.

tklarenb wrote:Well, I wrote a 7 page essay on this topic for a composition class, and from all the research I did, I've come to the conclusion that it was both.

First off, while Jack Horner's one point that it wouldn't be able to catch itself if it fell when running is true, he doesn't look at the fact that there's animals today that can't catch themselves if they fall and would injure themselves as a result (example- giraffes) but still run all the time. Second, to be a successful predator, you don't have to run. You can be an ambush predator like an alligator.

If it was indeed 9 ton I'd say both. It just wouldn't be fast enough to catch something like an Edmontosaurus.

Third, even if they had to run, they were fast enough to catch their prey. Although T. rex has been proven to be slow, they're prey was actually even slower.

Fourth, hadrosaurs have been found with healed T. Rex bite marks, meaning the T. Rex bit them when they were alive. So its pretty obvious they hunted their prey.
Pic of bite mark:


However, I do think they scavanged at times too. Why? Because there is practically no predator alive today that doesn't scavange. Sure, some scavange more than others, but almost none of them purely hunt for food.

Almost all of that is true. But I have two things I see wrong with your theory.
-First,Tyrannosaurus has now just recently been estimated to run over 20 mph.It depends on the age and size of the rex HOW much over 20.

-Second,Tyrannosaurus (Because of balance) is very hard to "Fall and not get back up". Really,only things involving legs is what I see (In my opinion) wrong.

But like you said,no predator today doesn't scavenge. (Unless its an ALIEN)

I never said it was easy for them to fall over, I just said they can't catch themselves if they do. And 20 mph is what I qualify as slow (anything that runs at human speed or less is slow in my opinion). It's only 9 more than the previous estimate, and it means that it would have been even easier for it to catch prey. So I actually agree with both your points.