I am sure all of you realized that I was never going to be able to go through an entire week of extinct animals without talking about the most famous of them all. Of course I talking about the Tyrannosaurus Rex, which just happened to be one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs to have ever lived. I am sure we all know plenty about this beautiful animal but let’s see what else we can find out, shall we?
The T. Rex was approximately 12 m (40′) long and 4.6 – 6.0 m (15 – 20′) tall with a massively, strong tail and a skull that was about 1.5 m (5′) long. If that doesn’t strike fear into it’s prey than I don’t know what will. Even more disturbing is the fact that scientists believe this massive animal was able to consume up to 230 kg (500 lbs) in ONE bite! To put this into perspective that is an average sized Grizzly Bear. I really hope the T. Rex chewed with his mouth closed but then again who in their right mind would discipline them on their poor table manners. Scientists also believe that this giant dinosaur didn’t necessarily bother picking out bones and would simply crush them with their massive teeth.
All of this means that 67 to 65.5 million years ago, you would not want to be roaming around the forested river valleys of North America. I guess the good news would be that you should always see them coming. I can’t imagine a dinosaur this big sneaking up on you. Now whether or not you would have had to worry about this dinosaur (provided we were living 65 million years ago) is a debate that has been ongoing in the paleontology circles of years. One group believes that the T. Rex was indeed the top predator of the food chain which would make sense, however, the other group believes it was simply a large scavenger feeding on dead animals. We can understand where the predator arguments come from but why do they think they were a scavenger? Some of the details around their mobility, speed and damage they would incur if they ever fell causes some to believe they wouldn’t have been able to capture their prey. So what group are you part of? I know they definitely were not a scavenger in the Jurassic Park movies but I don’t think that is a reliable source.
That does it for our Prehistoric Wild Facts – Extinction post. Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow for an all new fact.
