D&D General Tyrannosaurs were pack hunters. Stay away from the Isle of Dread.

[Richards]

And here we have Calvin's take on the "predator vs. scavenger" argument:

Johnathan

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don’t know how directly I can get away with acknowledging this, but there’s a lot of demographic crossover between academics and D&D players.

Next time I'm at the Smithsonian, I'll send a few D20s rolling down the hallways and see how many staffers dive for them.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

Next time I'm at the Smithsonian, I'll send a few D20s rolling down the hallways and see how many staffers dive for them.

To be fair, the staffers who dive for them will be those HR types only concerned about "slip and fall" risks. The gamers will be those who wait to see what the roll is...

 

[dave2008]

males having a crest I could see, the females would be plane as anything.

I would put money on rex in colder areas being fluffier than others but in the warm land near pure scale.

Not likely unfortunately (I like the idea of a feathered T-Rex). The current evidence suggests little to no feathers as @Steampunkette suggests and you can't go from having feathers as young to no feathers but scales as an adult (just skin) according to the integument experts.

 

[grimslade]

Nope, I am defying the experts. In my campaigns, T-Rex sports a giant tail of covert feathers like a peacock. Beautiful plumage! Instead of eye-like patterns, they will be tiny skulls and their vocalizations will be old school Metallica...

 

[Mind of tempest]

Nope, I am defying the experts. In my campaigns, T-Rex sports a giant tail of covert feathers like a peacock. Beautiful plumage! Instead of eye-like patterns, they will be tiny skulls and their vocalizations will be old school Metallica...

that would be kind of cool.

 

[Desdichado]

trex was likely a carnivore adapting to the bio meta of everything being a mini tank half its prey were armoured brutes that others could not touch, plus the nearest land carnivore of that size today is the polar bear and that is a hyper carnivore.

On the other hand, the short-faced bear, Arctodus spp., was larger than a polar bear and is largely interpreted as a likely scavenger.

That said, that interpretation is somewhat controversial, to say nothing of that of T. rex. If Arctodus and T. rex were scavengers, they are the only large, terrestrial scavengers that we know of. Arctodus also had the ability to bully other hunters off of their kills because of its size; "lions", sabertooths, wolves, dire "wolves" and more all occupied its same territory. As far as we know, the only hunters that a large T. rex could bully off of a kill was a smaller T. rex, or maybe a pack of Dakotaraptors in some areas of its territory.

 

[Desdichado]

And here we have Calvin's take on the "predator vs. scavenger" argument:

View attachment 135850

Johnathan

There are papers about the potential plumage of T. rex that are little more than that, honestly. "I don't want T. rex to be feathered, because Big Bird isn't cool." I've literally seen professional paleontologists admit, somewhat ruefully, that the idea of a feathery T. rex ruins their childhood.

 

[Mind of tempest]

There are papers about the potential plumage of T. rex that are little more than that, honestly. "I don't want T. rex to be feathered, because Big Bird isn't cool." I've literally seen professional paleontologists admit, somewhat ruefully, that the idea of a feathery T. rex ruins their childhood.

it would depends on what it looked like with feathers as it is not going to be some rainbow monster that is unlikely, plus tigers are fuffy and people still fear them so fluffy Trex could still look cool.

 

[Umbran]

I imagine that the T-Rex was an opportunistic predator. It is much easier to simply bully a smaller predator away from its kill than waste all that energy actively hunting.

Rare indeed is the modern predator who won't do this, if the kill is reasonably fresh. Bullying others away from a kill isn't what differentiates predator from scavenger.