You remember the dramatic scene from 1997's "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" in which tyrannosaurus licks Julianne Moore's Dr. Sarah Harding while she and other characters in the movie find themselves in a waterfall. and try not to become a lizard's snack? If you don't remember, check out the snippet we're talking about in the following clip:

Did you see how the T-Rex throws out the lingonona and passes it back and forth over the terrified paleontologist? Because, according to Monica Kortsha-Texas of Futurity, a recent study by scientists at the University of Texas at Austin, USA, pointed out that this scene would only be possible in movies, since, according to the team, Dinosaurs were probably unable to stick their tongues out of their mouths.

Only in fiction

The conclusion came after the researchers compared the bones around their necks that help support and fix the tongue of birds and crocodiles with fossils. These bones are called hyaloids, and after analyzing the fragments, scientists realized that instead of the dinosaurs having languages ​​similar to those of today's lizards, they were more similar to those of alligators and their relatives - and were probably "stuck" to them. bottom of their mouths.

Various Fossils (National Geographic)

More specifically, the researchers captured high-resolution images of the hyoid bones - and related musculature - of 15 different species of “modern” animals, three of them crocodiles and the rest of birds, including ducks and ostriches, as well as fossils of specimens. extinct, including pterosaurs and even the bone of a T-Rex.

Comparison of actual structures with those of dinosaurs revealed that the hyoid bones of prehistoric animals were much closer to those of crocodiles than birds, and therefore their tongues should not be very mobile, no, since they would be completely fixed to the floor of the mouth.

Updating defaults

But don't think that the people responsible for recreating the dinosaurs for the movies - with naughty tongues and all - are the most out-of-date guys in the paleontology world! As the scientists responsible for the research explained, dinosaur languages ​​are not usually studied and have been portrayed as being flexible and mobile ever since.

Run! (Digital Trends)

Another interesting thing that was recently presented - coincidentally by the same team of scientists - was evidence that, instead of frightening screams and roars, dinosaurs made noises and vocalizations similar to those made by crocodiles.

In addition, scientists linked the same structures - hyoid bone and related musculature - to the ability to fly. Interestingly, the researchers found that pterosaurs (flying dinosaurs) and current birds have some similarities, even though they belong to different lineages.

One possibility, according to the researchers, is that as dinosaur arms evolved into wings, prehistoric animals were losing the ability to capture their prey with their claws and were gaining more advanced and mobile tongues - like those of modern birds. - to be able to find food more easily.

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