Millions of readers, viewers and listeners tuned in last week to a very old story – prehistoric, in fact.
NIU geologist Joe Peterson’s research shows adolescent T-Rex dinosaurs fought with each other in the same way that many young mammals do today.
The evidence can be found on Jane, the museum’s prized juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex, discovered in 2001 in Montana.
Jane’s fossils show that she sustained a serious bite that punctured through the bone of the dinosaur’s left upper jaw and snout in four places, the researchers report. The injury wasn’t life-threatening and eventually healed over, according to the scientists. The bite did leave scars, however.
The researchers determined that another juvenile tyrannosaur was responsible for the injury.
“Only a few animals could have inflicted the wound,” Peterson says, noting that the bite marks were oblong-shaped. A crocodile or an adult T. rex would have left different types of bite marks.
Peterson’s discovery made worldwide headlines thanks to the expert writing and news-pitching skills of Public Affairs science writer Tom Parisi.
The “T-Rex Terrible Teens” story went global through a combination of standard and new-age media strategies, including use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and EurekaAlert.
U.S. media outlets that ran the story included ABC News, Fox News, MSNBC, USA Today, the Discovery Channel, Science Daily, the Chicago Tribune and WBBM all-news radio. Beyond our borders, Peterson’s discovery received significant media play in England, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Spain, India and Japan.
To review media “hits” of Peterson’s story and other recent NIU media placements, visit “NIU in the News.”