Was T. rex's skull bulletproof?

Submitted by aesthetic_rex t3_11r0vfz in askscience

I'm currently writing a sci-fi graphic novel which pits soldiers against dinosaurs, and I've run into some questions. To prevent its own skull from shattering when it bit down with the force of at least 6 tons, T. rex's skull was incredibly strong, which begs the question; does that make it stronger than most metals? Moreover, is it strong enough to stop a bullet, at least of a lower caliber?

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Fair-Ad3639 t1_jc9m7e0 wrote

Not a Paleontologist, but if you'd like an engineer's perspective:

So I'm thinking you're looking at the UMissouri paper regarding the strength of the skull. The stiffness they're referring to is irrelevant to your question.

One trouble our shot t rex has is, the skull is very skeletonized (hollow). The holes in it are huge and the skull is thin in many places.

Basically, in my opinion it's gonna come down where/ how it's shot even more than how big the gun is.

Of course, the thing is also huge, and all it needs to do is to not have a bullet enter the brain cavity with a lot of energy.

I entertained the notion of spending a couple hours doing some explicit dynamics simulations on this, but sleep's gonna hafta take priority :)

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thegagis t1_jc9eq9e wrote

Typical assault rifles fire fairly low power rounds, such that they can't be reliably used to hunt big game, so you could probably sell it to an audience even if you don't really know if it would actually work.

So its more about how modern soldiers are equipped with a very large number of fairly small ammunition than about properties of the skull.

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Ridley_Himself t1_jcc4gt0 wrote

If soldiers are coming in with the intent of killing T-rex, they would likely have equipment for it, and gun designs were developed for the express purpose of hunting large animals such as elephants.

Funny enough, I just stumbled across a rifle cartridge called a .577 Tyrannosaur.

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