Large meat-eating dinosaurs like T Rex traded big eyes for stronger bite, study suggests

Such eye socket shapes helped large dinosaurs evolve high bite forces without compromising skull stability, scientists say

Large predatory dinosaurs like the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex developed different eye socket shapes to deal with higher bite forces, according to a new study.

While the eye socket is just a circular hole in the skull housing the eyeball in many animals, scientists, including those from the University of Birmingham in the UK, say this is very different in large carnivores, including dinosaur predators like the T rex.

The new research, published on Thursday in the journal Communications Biology, suggests that the unusual elliptical or oval eye sockets found in the skulls of these dinosaur predators could have evolved to help the skull absorb impact as they pounced on prey.