A grant to the rex Lab will jump-start our high-speed video and clever motion tracking of feeding raptors, and enable us to CT scan the neck vertebrae of Scotty the Tyrannosaurus rex (Royal Saskatchewan Museum RSM P2523.8; photo by Meagan Gilbert). The video will document and quantify feeding motions in raptors like this bald eagle, which we will replicate through musculoskeletal computer modelling. What we discover about errors in our models will inform simulated dynamics of bigger theropod dinosaurs, like Allosaurus and Scotty the T. rex.

Skull and neck of  the Tyrannosaurus rex Scotty (RSM P2523.8; photo by M. Gilbert), and schematic of high-resolution, high-speed video of a feeding bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). Paleontologist Tim Tokaryk led Scotty's excavation, and technician Wes Long prepared and cast its bones and reconstructed the skull as seen here.