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Education Science

Ever Smell T-Rex's Breath? 151

Posted by simoniker from the sniff-sniff-boom dept.
Jim Hawkins writes "Well, in case you never have the chance of getting up close and personal with a T.Rex, Dale Air, a company who 'nose' its smells, has recreated Tyrannosaurus Rex's breath for London's Natural History Museum. Seems people made a stink about the rotting flesh smell that would exist on T-Rex's breath - guess someone forgot to tell him to brush his teeth."
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Ever Smell T-Rex's Breath? More

Ever Smell T-Rex's Breath?

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  • and this is useful because? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bunburyist ( 664958 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:19AM (#9558908)
    Still waiting for that cure for cancer.

  • T-Rex breath (Score:5, Funny)

    by birdwax2k ( 787311 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:20AM (#9558910)
    Supposedly it smells a lot like T-Rex ass.

  • This is not news! (Score:5, Informative)

    by tehcyder ( 746570 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:21AM (#9558918) Journal
    It's been there since 2001.

  • "news for nerds" (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:22AM (#9558926)
    "stuff that matters"

  • Nothing new is it? (Score:5, Informative)

    by GrahamCox ( 741991 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:24AM (#9558931) Homepage
    I'm sure this has been there for several years - in fact I saw it when I was in London and I've since emigrated! I heard that the smell they recreated was actually a lot tamer than the original would have done, since obviously they didn't want people keeling over or being sick - so the smell they have there is more like vaguely rotting cabbage than the stench of rancid meat. Certainly when I saw it it didn't smell all that bad.
    • I'm sure this has been there for several years - in fact I saw it when I was in London and I've since emigrated!

      But you could have emigrated yesterday.
    • Certainly when I saw it [the simulated Tyrannosaurus Rex breath] didn't smell all that bad.

      Not to you, perhaps.

      But since you post of Slashdot, you've no doubt had many more opportunities to build up resistance to much more devastating scents:
      • unwashed geek with a beard full of Dorito crumbs,
      • Mountain Dew fermenting in a shag carpet laid down in 1976,
      • "magic-user" feet after a twelve-hour D&D marathon,
      • the reek of Mom's basement after that dot-com "opportunity" fell through and an impoverished and d
  • This article [wired.com] should take you back to the dot-com glory days. The opening paragraph:

    "After an uncomfortable pause, he looked straight into the eyes of the woman he'd loved for years. As he moved in for the kiss, he caught a whiff of her shoulder and immediately thought of his computer."
    • I guess someone would get turned on by the smell of their computer if they'd spent lots of time in front of it 'degaussing their coil', to borrow a phrase from UF.
  • Wow, can't wait till the classic "Jurassic Park" is remade later on in this millenium when you get smells in the movie, too. Maybe, after I've lived for five centuries because of quantum biotechnology, I'll be able to forgive slashdot because I'll have realized that this news item was just ahead of its time, when I go to see the movie utilizing this hot new smelling technology.
    • If you ask me, Jurassic Park already stinks to high heaven. I mean, with lines like, "God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs... Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth..."

      Who needs the stink of rotting flesh when you have the stink of a Hollywood screenwriter?

  • Obvious joke. (Score:5, Funny)

    by ideatrack ( 702667 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:25AM (#9558935)
    guess someone forgot to tell him to brush his teeth

    Well it is in England...

    And I'm English before anyone gets upset ;)

  • Britain Smells? (Score:3, Funny)

    by upside ( 574799 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:27AM (#9558940) Journal
    Look at the URL. Those wisecracks at CNN couldn't resist a jibe, could they?

  • Ever Smell T-Rex's Breath? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    No.

    And I prefer to keep it that way, ta.

  • My T-Rex (Score:2, Funny)

    by Timesprout ( 579035 )
    Brushes and flosses regularly, then rinses with 5 gallons of Listerine. He say its worth it cos the ladies like good teeth. He does say he is struggling to find a decent scale moisturiser though. He's such a vain beast.
  • I'd hate to have to wake up next to a female t-rex one morning.. don't they know that they should brush their tongues when they brush their teeth?

  • The smell of newbie in the morning (Score:4, Funny)

    by AndroidCat ( 229562 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:32AM (#9558959) Homepage
    "Say you've got help desk staff who are getting tense and frustrated -- they can press a button to get an aroma to help calm them down," Knight said.

    And what aroma would that be? Luser eaten by a t-rex?

  • Reptiles and poor dental hygiene (Score:5, Informative)

    by N Monkey ( 313423 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:34AM (#9558974)
    "-Rex's breath - guess someone forgot to tell him to brush his teeth."

    I used to catch beared dragons [ecotarium.org] when I was a kid. They didn't have bad breath (that I can remember) but if they bit you the bacteria on their teeth could be nasty.
    • they tend to eat locusts and the like, rotting insects smell rather different than rotting flesh, reptile or mammal
    • From the article:

      "The dinosaurs would have had open sores from fighting, and rotting meat stuck in the gaps between their teeth.

      "We needed all these features in the eventual odor," he said.
       ...
      Dale Air started life as an air-freshener firm. Then founder Fred Dale, who died earlier this year, found a lucrative sideline.

      What, they threw him into the T-Rex's mouth?

      <Aussie_accent>
      How's _that_ for authentic, ay mayt?
      </Aussie_accent>

  • Smell o Vision (Score:2, Funny)

    by Osgyth ( 790644 )
    I'm just waiting for the horrid day where you are able to smell the programs on TV. Or sure, sounds great for the cooking shows, but what the "secret doorway" in Desperado? (FYI, it was a bathroom stall with shit spread all over the walls)
    • I'm just waiting for the horrid day where you are able to smell the programs on TV.
      I'll be leaving the room during the Kotex commercials.

      She'll be leaving the room during the locker room interviews.

      We'll both be leaving the room during the State of the Union address.

    • Has anybody figured out a way to download smells?

  • Just to answer the pressing question (Score:5, Informative)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:35AM (#9558977) Homepage Journal
    Yes, they do have the fart smell. It's listed as "Flatulence #9668" in their catalog [daleair.com].
  • http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/06/27/britain .smells.reut/index.html

    Had to come from somewhere...

  • Opportunist Cleaners? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mazem ( 789015 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:43AM (#9559005)
    I wonder if small opportunist creatures cleaned the T-Rex, like Egyptian Plovers clean crocodile teeth and various fish eat the parasites on sharks.

  • Considering it's diet ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dledeaux ( 174743 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:44AM (#9559012) Homepage Journal
    I recently saw a very interesting program on Discovery that hinted at T-Rex actually being a scavenger, not a hunter.

    They had several interesting theories to back this up. For example, T-Rex had a very bad center of gravity for one thing. This coupled with the fact that it's arms were so small meant that it would not pick itself back up if it fell. This meant that T-Rex probably didn't run because it didn't want to fall. It probably walked everywhere and in walking, the only food it would be able to catch would be already dead food.

    Other reasons that pointed out it's "scavengaristic" diet where things like it's olfactory senses. Porportionally it is the same size as a vulture.

    So, the theory that it ate already rotting flesh would greatly contribute to it's problems with halitosis!
    • I agree I have seen another documentory stating the same thing, maybe the same one. But then I am sure if a T-Rex could get it in its mouth it was going to eat it. Dead or alive or an unfortunate rock with blood on it.

    • Re:Considering it's diet ... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bwy ( 726112 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @09:08AM (#9559138)
      It is amazing that a species that can't pick itself up from a fall could survive past a single generation. But, I'm sure there are other species with this fault. It just sounds like a bad trait to have.
      • > It is amazing that a species that can't pick itself up from a fall could survive past a single generation.

        Oh, I don't know...we [phatnav.com] seem to have done all right.
      • True, but then again look at a turtle or a tortise. They have a lot of trouble if they end up on their back. They are not likely to get that way (at least unless there is some little kid nearby to place them like that) but one could attempt to go down to a stream along too great a slope and fall.

        It is not likely, but maybe the T-Rex was not likely to fall. It might still run and take that chance, but eventually poor runners would get selected out of the population too.
    • I've read that theory too, and it's a bloody stupid idea on several counts.

      For starters it would mean that there were _no_ predators over a certain size. (They all look like they're made to walk, rather than run.) Now in and by itself, that would be unusual, but not necessarily impossible. There aren't any predators the size of an elephant nowadays.

      What it wouldn't exmplain though, is why did several of the herbivore evolve defenses. Why did the triceratops, for example, need those horns and a massive bon
      • You don't necessarily need to run to be a predator. You just need to move (in whatever way) faster than your prey.

        You also don't need to be faster than a predator to avoid becoming its next meal, which reminds me of a joke about two people being chased by a bear: "The trick isn't being able to outrun the bear; the trick is being able to outrun the other guy!"

      • You ask:

        What it wouldn't explain though, is why did several of the herbivore evolve defences. Why did the triceratops, for example, need those horns and a massive bone shield, if not for defence? Why did other species grow basically armour plates? What was the evolutionary advantage of that, in the absence of predators?

        I'm not a behavioural paleobiologist, but the absence of predators doesn't seem to mean that there's the absence of reasons to fight. Maybe randy triceratops would fight over territory or a

        • Re:Considering it's diet ... (Score:4, Informative)

          by Hittite Creosote ( 535397 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @10:28AM (#9559848)
          Maybe randy triceratops would fight over territory or a mate?

          A recent article in Palaeontologica Electronica (vol 7, issue 1) suggests so. A brief summary in the New Scientist news article [newscientist.com]

        • Not being a girl of any species, I can only speculate.

          But from what I hear the behavioural biologists say, the reasons why the girls like the guys they do, links back to ability the guys have to survive and provide for, at least until the young are out of the way.

        • Seeing these point, I wonder about its size. Why is it so large? If it is a scavenger, what advantage would size give it? As a predator I can more easily see the benfit of size.

          Also, don't many animals with tails use them to counter balance themselves when running? From skeletons we'd know the length of a T-Rex's tail, but the weight of the tail would be primarily in the muscle mass. Maybe they had thick tails and didn't fall over as easily.
      • And you don't even have to be faster than your prey. Humans did well as cursorial hunters because they can outlast their prey. Of course humans (and other cursorials) have excellent mechanisms for getting rid of waste heat--we sweat, wolves pant. And a T-Rex, with its body mass, must have had a huge heat disposal problem. My nose itches just thinking about a sweaty T-Rex, euugh! :)
      • There were other predators in the LONG history of the dinosaurs. Velociraptors being the more famous. So the other preds would bring down the kill and the T-rex would show up and drive the preds away and eat the dead flesh. Sounds reasonable to me!

        Fritz

        ___________
        • It's worth remembering that lions do hunt, as well as just scavenge. Likewise I'm relatively sure that T. Rex did both.

          So perhaps what's being argued about is:
          1) how long could the meat have been dead and still be appetizing, and
          2) how much of the time did it hunt, as opposed to scavenging.
          N.B.: Scavenging would be an opportunistic activity, while hunting could be planned. So perhaps the question should be how much of the time was it intending to hunt? (Or did it even adopt different techniques when se
      • It's actually quite simple. T-Rex wasn't the only large predatory therapod, and its kin have noticeably stronger teeth and forelimbs.

        I will contest that it couldn't pick itself back up, though. One of the books I had as a child showed how its musculature could allow it to rise from the ground using its hind legs. Evolution doesn't favor such big gaps in survivability.
    • Once on a trip to Florida a manatee decided to demonstrate the use of its blowhole right in my face. That was gnarly enough -- and they're vegans.

      Oh the humanatee!

      [Somehow I think I should have checked Post Anonymously. Oh well.]

  • Aroma dispenser (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Writer ( 746272 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:46AM (#9559020)
    That "smell" device mentioned in the article that's supposed to hook up to a computer has been done. I recall hearing about devices like it more than once over the past few years. Here [slashdot.org] is one example and here [winespectator.com] is another. It's a lame idea.
  • Item 12235 in the catalouge is mustard gas.

    The chemical warfare connoisseur will be pleased to know they also offer phosgene gas aroma.

  • His breath would be affected by the diet of the animals he ate, as well - how do they know the exact content of a herbiverous dinosaur's diet?

  • Calming down (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Writer ( 746272 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:58AM (#9559063)

    The firm is testing an aroma dispenser which plugs into a computer and is controlled from the keyboard.

    "Say you've got help desk staff who are getting tense and frustrated -- they can press a button to get an aroma to help calm them down," Knight said.

    A case mod with a built-in bong would work much better.

  • Sounds like it from the description of his breath. Maybe they should rename him Stallmanosaurus
  • T-Rex breath...

    I guess people need a reference point so you can find out if your T-Rex has been out all night drinking.

  • Accurate? Isn't that a stretch? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by StateOfTheUnion ( 762194 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @09:07AM (#9559126) Homepage
    From the article:

    T-Rex breath turned out so accurate and so revolting, the curators instead opted for a milder swamp smell to evoke the creature's natural habitat.

    Revolting is beleivable, but accurate? Do we really know enough about T-Rex's to say that the synthetic breath that was created was accurate? What bacteria lived in the mouth? Did the saliva have antibodies to protect open wounds around the mouth from bacteria and infection? What was the pH of the saliva? These all affect breath . . .

    There are lots of unknowns that make me think that the journalist's use of the word accurate is more than a little presumptuous. . .

    • Probably not. (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by Tony-A ( 29931 )
      Assuming that crocodiles and dragon lizards (and probably vultures) have similar bad breath, T-Rex would almost certainly be also quite similar. The major ingredients would have to be chemicals given off by decomposing animal tissue. What T-Rex ate would matter more than anything else. The human nose is quite sensitive to (unacustomed) decomposition byproducts, enough so that Japanese find most westerners to have a very offensive body odor (from rotting hamburgers).
    • I don't know how 'revolting' the smell would be. Our sense of smell is linked in part to the threat level associated with the smell. Decomposing lizard is not great, fish is bad, decomposing cow is worse, but the worst is decomposing human.

      And that's because we 'recognize' that the decomposing human presents the greatest threat in terms of exposure to infection.

      Since T-Rex's diet would have been almost entirely other reptiles, with maybe the occasional fish thrown in, it's breath would not have been too ba

  • I don't think I would be particularly interested.

    If you are really curious, leave a kilo of raw hamburger sitting on the kitchen counter for a couple of weeks, while you go on vacation. Your house will be filled with the lovely aroma of T-Rex breath upon your return.

  • Science grabs for public interest (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cerebis ( 560975 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @09:24AM (#9559262)
    I am all for scientists attracting public interest to their research but, does it strike anyone that some attempts appear to do more to trivialise the pursuit of knowledge than it does to promote its' worth?

    The degree of conjecture necessary to claim an odor represents the breath scent of a Tyrannosaurus Rex is enormous. To the point that, when all the approximations and educated guesses are accounted for, it is likely you're wrong.

    At least demonstrate the scientific process with subject matter that will stand up to modest scrutiny.

  • It was halitosis that drived the dinosaurs to extiction!

  • Ever smell T-Rex breath (Score:3, Funny)

    by Cro Magnon ( 467622 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @09:58AM (#9559561) Homepage Journal
    Nope! But, to be fair, the T-Rex has never smelled my breath either!
  • .. the best part of being eaten by a T-Rex is stop smelling its breath?
  • Not exactly. His parents reminded him every morning, but with those short arms...

  • here is a better picture of T-REX
  • Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?
    Joey, you ever seen a grown man naked?
    ~ Captain Oveur, Airplane ~

    Sorry, the title just reminded me too much of these lines from Airplane. Anyhow, I'd really hate to smell a real T-Rex's breath, because you'd be the appetizer he's smelling! But I guess the smell of my burning karma might cover the stench...

  • The T-Rex's breath might not smell like rotting meat. A closer observation of the teeth of the T-rex reveals that the teeth are not rooted very deeply in the skull and jaw. This means that either the T-rex was not a carnivore, or it only ate small animals it could fit in it's mouth, similar to the way a snake eats. To catch and kill a large animal would mean ripping it's own teeth out.
  • I'm not familiar with the smell, but I do know the sound of old T-Rex. [thewho.net]

  • oh no... (Score:2, Funny)

    by (1)down ( 749897 )
    guess someone forgot to tell him to brush his teeth."
    This is the kind of humor that made us social outcasts in the first place....

    really though, on a thousand levels this just isn't funny..

  • icon (Score:2, Funny)

    by tr0p ( 728557 )
    Shouldn't the t-rex icon be on this story instead of the story above it?
  • So I don't have just imagine the smell of fresh napalm in the morning, but actually slap on the old MicroSmell game scent enhancer!

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