Toronto (PTI): A study that could restore the reputation of dinosaur king Tyrannosaurus rex as a fearsome hunter suggests that the ancient predators stalked its prey with a highly sensitive nose.

Although previous research have revealed quite a bit about the lifestyle of dinosaur, not much was known about their sense of smell, until now. The study is the first time that the sense of smell has been evaluated in prehistoric meat-eating dinosaurs.

A research paper, published in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B found that Tyrannosaurus rex had the best nose of all meat-eating dinosaurs, and their results tone down the reputation of T. rex as a scavenger.

"T. rex has previously been accused of being a scavenger due to its keen sniffer, although its nose may point to alternative lifestyles based on what we see in living animals" says Darla Zelenitsky, the lead investigator on the study by University of Calgary in Canada.

"Large olfactory bulbs are found in living birds and mammals that rely heavily on smell to find meat, in animals that are active at night, and in those animals that patrol large areas," he was quoted as saying by the Science Daily online.

The paleontologist said although the king of carnivorous dinosaurs wouldn't have passed on scavenging a free dead meal, "it may have used its sense of smell to strike at night or to navigate through large territories to find its next victim".

"Our results tell us that the sense of smell in early birds was not inferior to that of meat-eating dinosaurs," said co-author Francois Therrien, from the Royal Tyrrel Museum, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada.