Integument:
- a natural covering, as a skin, shell, or rind.
- any covering, coating, enclosure, etc. [Dictionary.com]
Noted in “Scientists say your idea of how the T. rex looked is probably wrong,” Dino Grandoni, WaPo:
But [Auburn University paleontologist Thomas] Cullen, one of the new study’s co-authors, said there is no strong evidence in the skulls of living animals that the wrinkle pattern precludes the presence of lips. “Simply put, the wrinkled texture along the upper jaws,” he said, “does not appear to be strongly correlated to lips one way or another.”
[Carthage College paleontologist Thomas] Carr is confident the debate will be settled someday. “What we need is a fossil of a mummy tyrannosaur that preserves the integument of the face,” he said.
