Exploration in Jurassic World—Research into Serrated Teeth of Theropod Dinosaurs on Scientific Reports
Dr. Rong-Seng Chang, Prof. of the Dept. of Optics and Photonics, holding a tooth fossil of Tyrannosaurus, explains that the internal structures of the saw-like cutting edges on theropod dinosaurs’ teeth are like springs which protect their teeth from cracking easily and make them top hunters.
Why were theropod dinosaurs so powerful and dominant in Jurassic Period? The international research team organized by Dr. Robert Rafael Reisz, Chair Professor of the Dept. of Optics and Photonics, Dr. Rong-Seng Chang, Professor of the Dept. of Optics and Photonics, and other distinguished scholars may have found one of the possible answers to that question. The researchers discovered that one of the reasons that made theropod dinosaurs the top of the food chain was the saw-like cutting edges on the side of their teeth. And the structure of these saw-like teeth resembled springs very much, rendering the teeth uneasy to crack. The findings were published in the internationally renowned journal Scientific Reports on 28th July, 2015.
The research originated from Dr. Reisz’s hypothesis. Scientists used to infer that the serrated cutting edges on Tyrannosaurus’ teeth might be the small cracks created when tearing games apart, yet it was uncertain that if those cracks were inherent or acquired. The research team decided to borrow the teeth fossils of Tyrannosaurus and baby Allosaurus from Royal Ontario Museum of Canada and they were air-shipped to Taiwan last July. The team conducted research with Applied Optics and proposed Synchrotron Radiation Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (SR-FTIR) for further analysis at National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC) in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Researchers have investigated for two years and found that the “steak knife-like” cutting edges on most theropod dinosaurs’ teeth were formed inherently, and the cutting edges were crucial for those dinosaurs to tear through the flesh and chomp on the bones of their prays.
The research further pointed out that the internal structures of the cutting edges were not “hollow” but solid. “Our study has rejected the previous hypothesis. We find that those internal structures, the interdental folds, are like springs that make theropod dinosaurs’ teeth tough but flexible, so their teeth would not crack so easily when they chomp. The special structure of those dinosaurs’ teeth made them top killers for hundreds of millions of years,” said excitingly Dr. Rong-Seng Chang, Professor of the Dept. of Optics and Photonics of NCU.
Besides the outstanding findings of the serrated cutting edges on teeth of theropod dinosaurs, the international research team was also renowned for their study on dinosaurs’ embryos and the study appeared on the cover of Nature in 2013, which also printed by Komsomolskaya Truth. Russia said that, British and American scientists have named the 4th most outstanding scientific achievements in 2013.
