The Tyrant Lizard King, Queen and Emperor: Multiple Lines of Morphological and Stratigraphic Evidence Support Subtle Evolution and Probable Speciation Within the North American Genus Tyrannosaurus

Paul, Gregory S.; Persons, W. Scott; Raalte, Jay Van

doi:10.1007/s11692-022-09561-5

Cited by 10 publications

(191 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…In principle, we agree with Paul et al (2022) that there is good reason to question whether the hypodigm presently considered to comprise T. rex might in fact contain multiple species. The contemporary ceratopsid genus Triceratops was recognized on morphological grounds to contain two species, T. horridus and T. prorsus (Forster, 1996) and these species were later found, based on high-quality stratigraphic assessments, to be chronologically separated (Scannella et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Since it was named (Osborn, 1905), the validity of Tyrannosaurus rex was accepted, given its great size relative to its closest relatives and limited temporal span. As the fossils of T. rex accumulated in museum and university collections, studies of variation within the species focused on sexual dimorphism (Carpenter, 1990;Carpenter & Smith, 2001;Larson, 1994Larson, , 1997Larson, , 2008a with subsequent rigorous statistical and quantitative analyses failing to recover evidence of dimorphism in T. rex (Carr, 2020;Mallon, 2017;Saitta et al, 2020). Since then, less attention has been paid to whether T. rex consists of more than one species (Larson, 2008a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since then, less attention has been paid to whether T. rex consists of more than one species (Larson, 2008a). This issue was recently brought to the fore by the study of Paul et al (2022), which argued that what is currently called 'Tyrannosaurus rex' is actually three separate species, which can be diagnosed by differences in the femur and anterior dentary teeth (Fig. 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using extant archosaurs as a model, Erickson et al (2005) showed that hemal arch position and form are not useful in distinguishing male and female extinct archosaurs. Paul et al (2022) split T. rex into three species based on the evidence of stratigraphic position, robusticity, and the basal length ratio of the second and third dentary teeth. Relative to previous work, the authors have moved the "robust"-"gracile" spectrum from sexual dimorphism to species identity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Insufficient Evidence for Multiple Species of Tyrannosaurus in the Latest Cretaceous of North America: A Comment on “The Tyrant Lizard King, Queen and Emperor: Multiple Lines of Morphological and Stratigraphic Evidence Support Subtle Evolution and Probable Speciation Within the North American Genus Tyrannosaurus”

et al. 2022

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The Late Cretaceous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex was recently split into three species based on the premise that variation in the T. rex hypodigm is exceptional, indicating cryptic species and “robust” and “gracile” morphs. The morphs are based on proportional ratios throughout the skeleton. The species are claimed to be stratigraphically separate, with an early robust species followed by robust and gracile descendants. There are problems with the hypothesis: the taxon diagnoses are based on two features that overlap between the species; several skulls cannot be identified based on the diagnoses; proportional comparisons between Tyrannosaurus and other theropods are based on incomparable samples; the tooth data are problematic; the stratigraphic framework divides the Hell Creek Formation into thirds, without the stratigraphic position of each specimen, or independent age control showing the subdivisions are coeval over the entire geographic area; previous work found variation in T. rex, but it cannot be parsed into discrete categories. We tested for “gracile” and “robust” morphs by analyzing the femoral and tooth ratios that were published in the multiple species study using agglomerative hierarchical clustering. The results found that each set of ratios are explained by one cluster, showing that dimorphism is not supported. We tested for exceptional variation of the femoral ratio of Tyrannosaurus; we calculated the mean intraspecific robusticity for 112 species of living birds and 4 nonavian theropods. The results showed that the absolute variation in Tyrannosaurus is unexceptional and it does not indicate cryptic diversity. We conclude that “T. regina” and “T. imperator” are subjective junior synonyms of T. rex.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Insufficient Evidence for Multiple Species of Tyrannosaurus in the Latest Cretaceous of North America: A Comment on “The Tyrant Lizard King, Queen and Emperor: Multiple Lines of Morphological and Stratigraphic Evidence Support Subtle Evolution and Probable Speciation Within the North American Genus Tyrannosaurus”

et al. 2022

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“…In March 2022 Gregory Paul and colleagues published the article "The Tyrant Lizard King, Queen and Emperor: Multiple Lines of Morphological and Stratigraphic Evidence Support Subtle Evolution and Probable Speciation Within the North American Genus Tyrannosaurus," in Evolutionary Biology. The article proposes that the species Tyrannosaurus rex is actually three separate species: Tyrannosaurus rex, Tyrannosaurus imperator, and Tyrannosaurus regina [Paul, Persons & Raalte, 2022].…”

Section: Paleontology Fans and Gregory S Paulmentioning

confidence: 99%

CLADISTICS ruined my life: intersections of fandom, internet memes, and public engagement with science

Gartley¹

2022

JCOM

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In an increasingly mediated culture, social institutions such as science, public health, and civic engagement exist within the same modes of discourse as popular media. As a human endeavor, science is also a cultural phenomenon, and there are webs of multidirectional and layered communication that occur between formal science communication, pop science, and, indeed, popular media. For public participants, engagement with science and entertainment may be one in the same. This essay draws from research of transformative works, fan studies, and memetics to examine how the public engages with science and popular media within digital cultures.

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Enduring senses

Forbes

Wildman

2022

Synthese

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The meanings of words seem to change over time. But while there is a growing body of literature in linguistics and philosophy about meaning change, there has been little discussion about the metaphysical underpinnings of meaning change. The central aim of this paper is to push this discussion forward by surveying the terrain and advocating for a particular metaphysical picture. In so doing, we hope to clarify various aspects of the nature of meaning change, as well as prompt future philosophical investigation into this topic. More specifically, this paper has two parts. The first, broadly exploratory, part surveys various metaphysical accounts of meaning change. The goal here is to lay out the terrain, thereby highlighting some key choice points. Then, in the second part, after critiquing Prosser’s (Philosophy Phenomenol Res 100(3):657–676, 2020) exdurantism about ‘mental files’, we sketch and defend the enduring senses view of meaning change.

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The Tyrant Lizard King, Queen and Emperor: Multiple Lines of Morphological and Stratigraphic Evidence Support Subtle Evolution and Probable Speciation Within the North American Genus Tyrannosaurus

Cited by 10 publications

References 51 publications

CLADISTICS ruined my life: intersections of fandom, internet memes, and public engagement with science

Enduring senses

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