Tyrannosaur Parenting

(Scroll down to see today's new T. rex drawing . . . and several older drawings I reposted today. 

Tyrannosaur parenting is thought to have been very good.  That is, the mother and probably father tyrannosaur took care of the chicks.  The offspring were hatched in a pretty much very dependent state.  Paleontologist have found some very young Theropod (meat-eating dinosaurs) chicks and they were obviously hatched with sharp little teeth but in such a small body size that in a cruel Mesozoic world they would have needed parental care. . . much like baby birds.  

There is pretty good evidence that Tyrannosaurs mated for life and probably they also lived in packs.  So it may have been that all the Tyrannosaurs in the pack helped to take care of and raise the young.  

Since crocodilians like crocodiles, alligators and caiman carry their offspring in their mouth is is possible that Tyrannosaurs did the same thing.  

It is rather impressive to think of a 9-ton carnivore being a caring parent.  But that appears to be what Tyrannosaurs rex was.  There is some thought that when a Tyrannosaur was an adolescent that they may have been the chasers that chased prey species into the adult Tyrannosaurs' ambush.  This is assumed or maybe hypothesized because young Tyrannosaurs were built much lighter and clearly could have run much faster than the huge adults.

But when a baby Tyrannosaur was first hatched it could not have been able to feed itself.  It needed parental care and it needed to be fed by a parent, or parents, or be fed by other members of the Tyrannosaur pack. 

The Tyrannosaur parents and pack most certainly taught the young how to hunt and helped them learn the role that the adolescents would have when they were required to chase prey into an ambush. 

Also, consider this:   If a huge animal like T. rex could be gentle, we all ought to be able to be gentle with one another.

T. rex Mother with Chick in Nest

(new drawing today)

The above drawing was done the night before I had surgery last week... and it was done very late at night.  It is a bit more simple than many of my current drawings.  All these drawings can be found, in printable form, by clicking on the button labeled . . . Paleontology. . . .   Then scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the newest drawing.  Below are some earlier drawings of Tyrannosaur parenting. 

T. rex Mother carries Chick

T. rex Baby in Nest

T. rex Chicks getting Breakfast

Tyrannosaurus rex Mother in the Spring

T. rex hunts with Offspring

T. rex Chick in Nest