Tyrannosaurus-Rex

Tyrannosaurus-Rex T-Rex at Wingham Wildlife Park

Distribution:

Tyrannosaurus-Rex inhabited Asia and Laramidia. During the Cretaceous period the North American continent was divided by the Western Interior Seaway. The land to the east of this seaway was called Appalachia and to the west was the island continent of Laramidia.

Time Period:

They lived during the Upper Cretaceous period. This was the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era. Until this Era, the continents which exist today were fused into one super continent called Pangaea. Although it had already started to separate, during the Cretaceous period Pangaea broke apart and spread across world. This change slowly cooled the Earth’s climate and the continents and oceans familiar to us today began to take form. The end of this period came when an asteroid hit the Earth which resulted in the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and the end of the age of reptiles.

Size:

They were 12 meters (40 ft) long and stood 4 meters (13 ft) tall, weighing 6 metric tons.

Diet:

They were carnivorous dinosaurs which fed on other species and their own.

Interesting Facts:

Tyrannosaurus means ‘tyrant lizard’ and Rex means ‘king’, so the T-Rex is known as king of the tyrant lizards. Its legs were very strong to carry its huge weight and its head was enormous. Their thick skull alone could be 5 ft (1.5 meters) long which means that they needed very strong neck muscles to hold it up. This could be why Tyrannosaurus-Rex had such small arms though. Neck and arm muscles fight for space in the shoulder area but because their necks had to be so thick and powerful, they took up most of the shoulder space which resulted in less room for the arms to develop. They had the most powerful bite of any land animal to have ever lived. Additionally, the largest tooth of any carnivorous dinosaur discovered to date belonged to a Tyrannosaurus-Rex, it was about 30 cm long. The strong bite and huge sharp teeth coupled together mean that this dinosaur could have easily crushed the bones of other dinosaurs. Many experts believe that T-Rex hunted both live prey and scavenged the kills of others.  However, there wouldn’t have been many carcasses laying around to be scavenged and while their ferocious appearance would have helped them to claim the kills off of other dinosaurs this wouldn’t have been enough to sustain their huge appetites. They would have needed to hunt most of their prey themselves.