T. rex chick in Nest

T. rex chick in Nest

Tyrannosaurus rex was a fierce predator.  T. rex was also almost certainly a caring parent.  They found Theropod eggs in Portugul that showed that the young Theropods were hatched with teeth but they were way too small to take care of themselves in the very dangerous Cretaceous world.  

Robert Bakker said that when he thought of T. rex he thought of tenderness and caring parents.  

I think we need to look at the term as plural. . . PARENTS vs parent.  The injured T. rex Sue had clearly had a broken leg and had not starved to death.  She never could have hunted to feed herself so it is thought that T. rex probably mated for life and so Sue's mate took care of and fed her for the six weeks it would have taken for her leg to heal.  

This would indicate that Tyrannosaurus rex parents probably BOTH took care of and raised the young together.  This would be similar to a lion pride or a wolf pack.  .   .  with a Mesozoic twist.

This is a drawing of the T. rex chick with his or her mother or father.  FYI there is a theory that the females would have been bigger than the males. . . like in modern birds of prey.   They have found evidence that dinosaurs lined their nests with leaves so this T. rex mother or father did just that.