However, the fearsome carnivore actually had a snout as sensitive to touch as the human fingertip, according to scientists, and it’s now believed that the male and female T. rex would rub their sensitive faces together while banging. The discovery and analysis of the tyrannosaur shows that the dinosaur had a developed face sensitivity similar to the sensitivity in our finger tips, suggesting it could use its snout for all those complex ecological interactions, similar to the way crocodiles do today.”

An investigation by a team of scientists from Wisconsin, Australia, Louisiana, Montana and New Mexico has identified and named the new species of the tyrannosaur clan: Daspletosaurus horneri – “Horner’s Frightful Lizard.”

The species is named for the renowned dinosaur paleontologist, John “Jack” R. Horner, formerly curator at the Museum of the Rockies (MOR) in Bozeman, Montana. Examining the skulls and skeletons from several adults and juveniles of the species, researchers were able to start to piece together what the tyrannosaur would have looked like. The armor-like skin would have protected tyrannosaurs from abrasions, perhaps sustained when hunting and feeding.”

The researchers found that, like in crocodylians, the snout and jaws of the tyrannosaurs are penetrated by numerous small nerve openings, allowing hundreds of branches of nerves to innervate the skin, producing a sensitivity similar to that of human fingertips.
Scientific Reports publishes Carthage College research that Daspletosaurus horneri, from the same Tyrannosauridae family as the Tyrannosaurus rex, had a sensitive nose. The research describes that foramina sprouted from the trigeminal nerve at the snout and jaws possibly enabling the behavioral functions of exploration, courtship, nesting, foreplay, and parental investment.