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How did T. rex get to be so awesome? A recent fossil discovery revealed its secret.

The Tyrannosaurus rex — the tiny-armed, 40-foot-tall, seven-ton, jaw-chomping, lizard-bird-monster-god-of-doom — is the undisputed king of the dinosaurs.

But how exactly does one get to be the king of the dinosaurs?

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Well, thanks to a newly discovered relative of the famed "Jurassic Park" star, we now know the secret to T. rex's dino-success. And it's not all about its massive physical stats, after all.

Spoiler alert: It's lasers. GIF from "Dino-Riders."

You read that right: THEY DISCOVERED A NEW DINOSAUR!

It's called Timurlengia euotica, and yes, it's technically not new new because it's already been dead for a gazillion years, but that's beside the point 'cause it's a new freakin' dinosaur! 

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If somehow that's not exciting enough, it also fills in a glaring 20-million-year fossil gap in our overall dino-knowledge! Thanks, T. euot!

Yeahhhhh I guess "T. euot" doesn't sound nearly as cool as "T. rex," huh? Oh well, I tried. (Also that's an artist's rendering, in case that wasn't clear.) Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

It all started in Uzbekistan back in 2004, when a team of paleontologists found the fossil of a weird-lookin' braincase.

They were as intrigued by the grapefruit-sized bone lump as they were confused. Which is kind of how I feel whenever someone smart and science-y feels compelled to distinguish between the terms "braincase" and "skull."

GIF from "Meet the Robinsons."

The mysterious braincase was hidden away in storage — until 2014, when it caught the eye of Dr. Steve Brusatte, a T-rexpert from the University of Edinburgh.

"When I looked at it, it struck me really quickly that this looked like a tyrannosaur braincase," he told National Geographic. "Not exactly T. rex, much smaller; the same bones in a T. Rex would be bigger than a basketball."

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Specifically, it was missing some of the recesses and knobs that are standard on a T. rex braincase, and its ear canals were surprisingly long — evidence of incredible aural abilities.

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In fact, the braincase was remarkably reminiscent of Xiongguanlong, another recently discovered tyrannosaurid that predated the rex by about 60 million years. But whereas Xionggunlong was believed to be about the size of a human, Timurlengia euotica clocked in around 600 pounds and the size of a horse.

The tyrannosaurid family tree. Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

As Brusatte told CBS News:

Timurlengia "has an advanced brain. It has an ear with a very long cochlea, perfectly attuned to hearing low frequency sound. We used to think that those were the features of only the biggest tyrannosaurs, that those were things that evolved in the biggest tyrannosaurs in concert with the evolution of large size."

Note: This is not actually a GIF of a T. rex and T. euot nuzzling each other. GIF from "Walking With Dinosaurs."

You see, T. rex wasn't just a ginormous dino-dictator, ruling the Cretaceous with its teeny-tiny iron fists. It was also incredibly intelligent (for a dinosaur, anyway).

It had acute senses of sight, smell, and hearing, which gave it a leg up on the other predators roaming the land. And yes, it was also huge, which was obviously advantageous as well.

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But until this point, no one was really sure how it got there. How did it evolve to be a giant chompy monster that was also smarter than the average prehistoric lizard-bird?

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"It’s the head-first mode of evolution," said Hans-Dieter Sues, chair of the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and one of the co-authors of the study that discovered the T. euotica. "The brains [are] for the operation, and then you develop the bulk."

Hans-Dieter Sues presenting evidence of the T. euotica. Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

Put another way: T. rex is evolutionary evidence for the power of brains before brawn. And T. euotica is the missing link that proves it.

That's right, kids: If you study hard and believe in yourselves, you too can become a T. rex someday! That's how science works, right? 

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GIF from ... The Internet, I guess?

Joy

Homeless man catches family's two children and dogs dropped from burning apartment building

"He was right underneath and he was like 'Yes, throw your daughters out, I'm going to catch them, I'm going to get them.'"

CBS News|YouTube

Man catches entire family as they jump from burning building.

House fires are devastating for families. In a matter of minutes, you could lose all of your belongings and a place to live, or worse, you could lose loved ones. A family in Phoenix, Arizona, recently found themselves facing the reality of their own home in flames. Claudia Jimenez told CBS News that she woke up trapped in her burning apartment with her two daughters, with nothing to do but yell for help in the hopes that someone would hear her.

The mom's screams were answered by Joe Hollins, a homeless man who was camping nearby with his wife. Hollins didn't hesitate to try to find a way to help. With no way out and the fire department still nowhere on the scene, Jimenez had to trust the stranger who was standing below.

"He was right underneath and he was like 'Yes, throw your daughters out, I'm going to catch them, I'm going to get them,'" Jimenez told CBS.

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Family

Pediatrician shares two simple tips that could save a child's life at a pool party

"The more folks present, the safer the pool is, right? Wrong."

Photo by Ash Dowie on Unsplash

If there's a body of water anywhere, a designated adult needs to have their eyes on it.

It's that time of year when the weather across the country is warm enough for families to enjoy outdoor barbecues, picnics and pool parties. That means it's also the time of year when tragedy will strike a certain percentage of families who get blindsided by how quickly and easily a child can drown in a backyard pool, even when they're surrounded by people who care about them and their safety.

We've all been at a gathering where adults are coming and going, chatting, setting up food, taking trips to the bathroom, all while kids are busy playing in the water. In such scenarios, it's easy to assume that someone else is keeping an eye on the pool.

But as pediatrician Diane Arnaout has shared, the harrowing reality is that the more people there are at a pool party the more likely it is that a child could slip into the pool or become distressed in the water without anyone noticing.

In a Facebook post that has been shared more than 77,000 times, Dr. Arnaout wrote:

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pool safety
Joy

Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

A sad-looking Labrador Retriever

The sweet-faced, loveable Labrador Retriever is no longer America’s favorite dog breed. The breed best known for having a heart of gold has been replaced by the smaller, more urban-friendly French Bulldog.

According to the American Kennel Club, for the past 31 years, the Labrador Retriever was America’s favorite dog, but it was eclipsed in 2022 by the Frenchie. The rankings are based on nearly 716,500 dogs newly registered in 2022, of which about 1 in 7 were Frenchies. Around 108,000 French Bulldogs were recorded in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Labrador Retrievers by over 21,000.

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Pop Culture

Musician uses traditional Chinese instrument to create hypnotic cover of 'Hotel California'

There are literally hundreds of covers of this song floating around on the internet, but this one has its own unique flair.

Moyun/Youtube

Moyun peforms "Hotel California" on the guzheng.

The Eagles' hit song, “Hotel California,” has been covered countless times over the years by a variety of artists, including the likes of Nancy Sinatra, the Gypsy Kings and that guy at your local karaoke spot.

And while every rendition gives the song a fresh dynamic, one musician with a penchant for mystery has transformed the rock n’ roll staple into something entirely new.

Using a traditional Chinese string instrument called a guzheng, Moyun plays the song focusing mostly on its two guitar solo arrangements, creating a sound that has all the otherworldly beauty of an ancient folk tale.
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music
Pop Culture

Man rewatches shows from his childhood and his recaps of the bonkers storylines are priceless

Rob Anderson's hilarious recaps of shows like "Mighty Ducks," "Beethoven," and "7th Heaven" might make you wonder how they got made in the first place.

@hearthrobert/TikTok

These plots makes zero sense.

While there are no doubt some timeless classics from our childhood that remain every bit as amazing as we remember, many are straight-up cringey upon a later viewing. Really, it’s to be expected as societal viewpoints change…sort of a marker of how far we’ve collectively come.

And so, what do we do with these problematic pieces of old-school pop culture? Well, we can certainly update them to better reflect a more modern attitude, but that also comes with a set of potential problems. Or we could simply never watch them again. Certainly an option given all the content out there. But then we might miss an opportunity to better understand what seemed to work for the mainstream then, and why it doesn’t work now.

And then there’s the third option—allow ourselves to be entertained by their cringiness.

That’s certainly the route taken by Rob Anderson. Over on TikTok, Anderson has taken ultra-popular movies and television shows from his childhood and given them hilarious recaps capturing how absurd some of the storylines are.
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movies
Joy

Woman decides that she is the love of her life and marries herself at her retirement home

“I said, you know what, I’ve done everything else. Why not?”

KCEN|YouTube

77-year-old woman decides she's the love of her life and marries herself.

We joke about marrying ourselves or a platonic friend if some arbitrary amount of time has passed without a proposal from an imaginary suitor. And sure, some people do wind up marrying a friend in more of a business arrangement, but it's not very common that someone follows through with marrying themselves.

Dorothy "Dottie" Fideli, decided that she was going to break the mold. The 77-year-old sat down and thought about all of the things she had done in life and who was with her the entire time cheering her on. It was an easy answer: herself. She was her biggest cheerleader, the person who always showed up and the love of her life, so Fideli made the plan to marry herself.

On a beautiful May day, friends and family gathered in the O’Bannon Terrace Retirement Community, where Fideli is a resident, to witness the ceremony.

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