Dinosaurs lived millions of years ago and were the sole owners of the world at that time. It’s understandable because most dinosaurs were larger than we could have imagined, and there were carnivores among them. Yes, we’ll stick with the T-Rex, because the T-Rex was a gigantic carnivorous dinosaur, and an extremely intelligent predator.
In fact, we all know more or less about T-Rex because all TV series, movies, comics in popular culture always bring us together with a T-Rex when it comes to dinosaurs. If you’re wondering what kind of creature he was when even his prediction-based animations were so creepy, let’s take a closer look at the extraordinary information about T-Rex, some of which you will hear for the first time.
Unusual information about the T-Rex, some of which you will hear for the first time:
- T-Rex is big but not the biggest.
- He had deadly breath.
- There’s an important reason why female T-Rexes are larger than males.
- T-Rexes lived fast, they died young.
- They were not always hunting.
- The T-Rex cub looked like a little bird.
- The T-Rex was a much more successful hunter than we thought.
- The name Tyrannosaurus Rex was carefully chosen.
- T-Rexler is much smarter than we think.
T-Rex is big but not the biggest:
Tyrannosaurus Rex, or T-Rex as we all know it, was 12 meters long with its tail and 4 meters above the ground. Its weight is estimated to vary between 4 and 8 tons. But its incredible size and weight doesn’t make it the largest carnivorous dinosaur that ever lived. Giganotosaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur that lived in South America, could reach 13 meters in length and 14 tons in weight. Moreover, Spinosaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur that lived in Africa, could reach 16 meters in length and 7 tons in weight. This trio is very powerful.
He had a deadly breath:
A T-Rex had very dense, razor-sharp teeth. Of course, since our dinosaur, which was fed with raw meat, could not attach importance to oral hygiene, a large part of this meat would accumulate between the teeth during feeding. This accumulated and decayed flesh turned the T-Rex’s mouth into a den of bacteria, and naturally made his breath horrible. Even more interestingly, these bacteria would have made the T-Rex’s bite poisonous. A prey that he bit but did not catch could die painfully in a matter of weeks from infections caused by the bacteria he caught.
There’s an important reason why female T-Rexes are larger than males:
When the T-Rex fossils found in the excavations were examined, it was revealed that the females were several tons heavier than the males. The biggest reason for this weight difference is hip bone width. The hips of female T-Rexes were that wide, not for better twerk, but because they laid T-Rex-sized eggs. According to a different theory, perhaps the females of the T-Rex were hunting while the males slept, just like the lions of today.
T-Rexes live fast, die young:
In fact, it is difficult to understand how long a creature lived from a fossil, but studies on popular dinosaurs such as the T-Rex have been further detailed and they have been found to have an average lifespan of 30 years. T-Rexes were easily preyed upon by other predators, except for a brief period when they were at the top of the food chain. However, the main causes of death are estimated to be natural causes such as illness or old age. Considering that 50-ton titanosaurs could live for 100 years, T-Rex’s lifespan was quite short.
They were not always hunting:
It is possible to classify dinosaurs as carnivores, herbivores, omnivores and scavengers according to their diet. As we all know, the T-Rex was a carnivorous hunter. However, whether it is a scavenger has always been a matter of debate. We do not have definitive findings, but when we consider the conditions of the period, while there were tens of tons of dinosaurs that had just died on the right and left, T-Rex did not turn their noses at them and chase after prey. Maybe the T-Rex wasn’t exactly a scavenger, but he didn’t hesitate to take a few bites from just-dead dinosaurs.
The T-Rex puppy was like a little bird:
Of course, it is a few tons heavier than the bird we know. According to a now generally accepted theory, dinosaurs that lived millions of years ago evolved into today’s birds. For this reason, even a dinosaur weighing tens of tons had tiny feathers on it. These hairs were small in large area, but in a newborn T-Rex these hairs can appear much more densely. For this reason, we can say that a T-Rex puppy was a cute creature covered with feathers in the first period of its life.
The T-Rex was a much more successful hunter than we thought:
When we think about it, we can say that a giant predator like the T-Rex easily hunts creatures smaller than itself, as if picking cookies off the table. But it was inconceivable that T-Rex would hunt, especially when they were hungry. A Triceratops, which could reach 9 meters in length and 12 tons in weight, was also sometimes prey to a T-Rex. Of course, this wasn’t a constant hunt and huge adults were not preferred, but a hungry T-Rex wouldn’t mind jumping on a baby Triceratops either.
Wanting to see how strong a predator the T-Rex is, scientists at Stanford University conducted a comparison study on a crocodile. At the end of the study, it was seen that a T-Rex’s jaw could chew with a force of more than 2 tons. In other words, a T-Rex could nibble even at the hardest part of a dinosaur, its horn. Let’s also remind that the maximum jaw strength of a person is 80 kilograms.
The name Tyrannosaurus Rex was carefully chosen:
Of course, the names we know today were given in later studies, since the dinosaurs were not called by any name during the period they lived. Henry Fairfield Osborn, a paleontologist and president of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, named it Tyrannosaurus Rex as soon as he saw this fossil in 1905. Tyrannosaurus means tyrant lizard in Ancient Greek, and Rex means king in Latin. So T-Rex is the tyrannical lizard king of the dinosaurs. Couldn’t think of a better name.
T-Rexler is much smarter than we think:
Until recently, T-Rex were thought to be just stupid creatures that knew how to hunt. According to a paper published in the Journal of Comparative Neurology by Vanderbilt University neuroscientist and biologist Suzana Herculano-Houzel, T-Rexes have nearly the same number of neurons as modern primates. So a T-Rex could use tools with ease, as well as have an advanced problem-solving ability. Another reason to be glad that we are not living in the same era.
We talked about the extraordinary information, some of which you have heard for the first time, about the wild hunter T-Rex, which comes to mind first when it comes to dinosaurs. Okay, T-Rex is beautiful, but every brave man who has watched Jurassic Park has a dinosaur in their heart. You can share your favorite dinosaur in the comments.