It is known that the king of dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex He had small arms, but it was discovered that he also had small eyes, which allowed him to have a stronger bite.
It turns out that the species may have also evolved narrower eye sockets than their ancestors to allow them to bite more forcefully while in many animals – and most dinosaurs – the eye socket is just a circular hole in the skull that contains the eyeball, and this is very different in large carnivores.
In a new study, researchers at the University of Birmingham reveal that the unusual oval or oval eye cavities found in the skulls of these predators may have evolved to help their skulls absorb shock when they pounce on prey.
They suggest that the development of narrow eye cavities may have reduced the space available for the eyeballs within the skulls of theropods, but created more space for the jaw muscles and strengthened their skulls.
This may have helped them bite harder at the expense of accommodating large eyes, which previous research had suggested can improve visual perception.
Dr Stefan Luttenschlager, Senior Lecturer in Paleobiology at the University of Birmingham and author of the new study, analyzed the shape of the eye cavities of 410 specimens of fossilized reptiles from the Mesozoic era (between 252 and 66 million years ago) that included these dinosaurs and their relatives such as crocodiles and found that most species , especially herbivores, have circular eye cavities.
However, large carnivores with skulls over 3.2 feet (1 m) in length often have oval or keyhole-shaped sockets as adults, although they tend to have rounded sockets like juveniles. Archaic species tend to have more circular sockets compared to modern species, with larger theropods having more keyhole eye sockets than their ancestors.
Experts speculated that this allowed top predators, including T-rex, to develop high biting forces without compromising skull stability.
