| Tyrannosaurus Rex | |
|---|---|
 Tyrannosaurus Rex chasing a group of Ornithomimus | |
|
Kingdom |
Animalia |
|
Phylum |
Chordata |
|
Clade |
Dinosauria |
|
Order |
Saurischia |
|
Suborder |
Theropoda |
|
Family/Class |
Tyrannosauridae |
|
Subfamily |
Tyrannosaurinae |
|
Genus |
Tyrannosaurus |
|
Type Speices |
Tyrannosaurus Rex |
|
Synonyms |
Manospondylus gigas |
Tyrannosaurus Rex was a genus of tyrannosaurid dinosaur from late cretaceous North America. This Tyrant lived 68-65.5 Million Years Ago in what will become the US.
Description[]
Tyrannosaurus Rex was up to 12.3 metres long and weighed at up to 7 tonnes. This huge carnivore used to be the largest carnivorous dinosaur known until three new dinosaurs were discovered and knocked Tyrannosaurus down into fourth largest carnivorous dinosaur ever. No feathers have been found on tyrannosaurus itself but the largest feathered dinosaur found to date, Yutyrannus huali, is a tyrannosaurid so it is quite possible that tyrannosaurus may have been covered in protofeathers on some parts of it's body. However many other large tyrannosaurid specimins show no signs of any feathers at all and are covered in mosaic scales instead. Although it is possible that tyrannosaurus was coated with protofeathers it is not that likely as in modern animals the larger the animal the smaller the surface area-to-volume ratio is meaning that the bigger an animal gets it's abillity to store heat gets greater than before. This is seen in many multi-ton animals in thepresent day such as elephants, rhinos and hippos which all lack insulatory body covering. Although adult tyrannosaurus' probably didn't have feathers babies or young tyrannosaurus' probably had them to keep the warm but as they got bigger lost them so they didn't have any as an adult.
Killer Instinct[]
For years and years there has been an ongoing debate on how tyrannosaurus obtained it's food. Most people belive that it hunted it's prey and caught it it's self rather than scanvenging of the kills of other carnivores, but many other people do think that it was a scavenger due to the fact that it's olfactory bulb was huge. The significance of the size of the olfactory bulb is that it meant that tyrannosaurus had a fantastic sense of smell meaning that it woiuld be able to smell a carcass from long distance which would be necessary for a full time scavenger.
Tyrannosaurus Rex Tooth
The thing that made tyrannosaurus such an efficent predator was the size of it's head. It's huge jaws lined with long banana sized teeth could dislocated, like a snakes in order to tear of and swallow great lumps of flesh. The teeth of tyrannosaurus were almost as wide as they were long meaning that they were perfect for crushing bone and pentrating armour, unlike most other large carnivores who's teeth are more designed of tearing of flesh rather than crushing bone. Tyrannosaurs are different from other large meat eaters like Carcharodontosaurus, Giganotosaurus and Mapusaurus. Tyrannosaurus would have used it's impressive armoury to try and take down so of the most well defended herbivores on the planet. Herbivores like Edmontosaurus and Pchycephalosaurus would not have been to harder prey for this tyrant, but others like Ankylosaurus, Triceratops and Alamosaurus would have posed more of a threat to the tyrannosaurus' health. One of the things that enabled tyrannosaurus to take down these tough herbivores was its bite force. Recent estimates place the bite force of tyrannosaurus between 3 and 10 tons, which is up to 20,000 pounds of force. Along with the bite force tyrannosaurus was also one of the most muscularly builttheropods ever. Even its tiny arms could crush the olympic weight record being able to lift up to 227Kg. Tyrannosaurus used to be pictured as a slow moving lumber giant n
Tyrannosaurus Rex Skull And Neck
ot even capably of 10MPH, but new research suggests that it may have actually been a fairly quick moving it's top speed estimate now is 25 MPH.
In Popular Culture[]
- Tyrannosaurus is one of the most famous of dinosaurs. It shown in many recent movies involving dinosaurs. It played an important role in the famous movie Jurassic Park, and appeared in the movies sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park. In this movie it rampaged through San Diego in an attempt to find its offspring.
- It later appeared in the third sequel Jurassic Park 3. Here a sub-adult male Tyrannosaurus ate the remains of a Parasaurolophus and was killed by a sub-adult Spinosaurus.
- It also starred in an episode of the reknowned documentary series Walking With Dinosaurs, and two shows from the same producers called Prehistoric Park and Primeval.
- It has also appeared in several episodes of the well known documentary Jurassic Fight Club and Clash of the Dinosaurs. Another documentary it's been in is Dinosaur Revolution, where it showed how a family of tyrannosaurs lived until the K-T Extinction Event.
