Did T. rex Have Lizard-Like Lips?

Skin is rarely preserved in the fossil record, so scientists must study the fossils to discover clues about missing pieces like skin, coloration, etc. Apparently the “lip question” has been debated back and forth, with “lipless dinosaurs [becoming] more prominent in the 1980s and 1990s” artist depictions. And yet, as one of the scientists involved with this new study shared,

Curiously, there was never a dedicated study or discovery instigating this change [to depicting dinosaurs without lips] and, to a large extent, it probably reflected preference for a new, ferocious-looking aesthetic rather than a shift in scientific thinking. We’re upending this popular depiction by covering their teeth with lizard-like lips. This means a lot of our favorite dinosaur depictions are incorrect.

To dive into the “lips or no lips” question, a group of researchers completed a “detailed comparative analysis of the differences in the teeth and skull bones of lipped and lipless reptiles, including monitor lizards, marine iguanas, and alligators. They studied the tooth structure, wear patterns, and jaws of several reptiles in these groups.” They then created a set of characteristics for each reptile and compared them, taking that understanding and applying it to therapods, like T. rex, and other extinct reptiles. And the big takeaway?

The mouth anatomy of T. rex was a lot closer to that of lipped reptiles.

These, of course, are not muscular lips like mammals have, but lips like that of a lizard, designed to protect teeth from damage. Now, of course, any study threatening to overturn decades of thought is going to be contentious, and not everyone agrees with the conclusions of this study. But I thought it was a great example to highlight the difficulties of practicing historical science.

When scientists try to reconstruct what happened in the past—or even what a past creature looked or acted like—they are doing historical science.

You see, when scientists try to reconstruct what happened in the past—or even what a past creature looked or acted like—they are doing historical science. They cannot directly test, observe, or repeat the past, so this is very different from observational science (science in the present that’s directly testable, observable, and repeatable). Now, scientists do often use some of the same tools to do both observational and historical science (as these scientists did). But what’s important to know about historical science is that what you believe about the past (evolution and millions of years or biblical creation) is going to drive your interpretations.

Thankfully, for this study (at least in the popular media), the evolutionary assumptions seem fairly minor. The scientists aren’t applying the evolutionary tree of life to this dinosaur to try to figure out if it had lips. Instead, they are making observations and comparisons based on the physical evidence they can study today as they try to reconstruct what these creatures might have looked like. As a creationist, I can say this is a good use of observational science tools in a historical science setting (even if not everyone agrees with the conclusions of the study).

So, did T. rex have lips? Perhaps. And while it’s a good question to investigate, whether it did or not makes no difference in a biblical worldview that understands that, however T. rex was designed, it was designed to do what it did . . . and it did it well!

Yes, dinosaurs were created by God on day six of creation, along with man, just a few thousand years ago.

Get More Answers on Answers News

I discussed this item on Monday on Answers News with cohosts Dr. Georgia Purdom and Dr. Kaia Kloster. Answers News is our weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum and broadcast on my Facebook page and the Answers in Genesis Facebook page. We also covered the following topics:

• Why does creation groan? Christianity Today magazine gets it really wrong.
• AI chatbot encourages man to end his life because of climate change.
• “Anti-trans” bill in Kentucky?
• And more!

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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.