Little Known Facts About The Tyrannosaurus Rex

Most people have heard of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. It is the most well-known and feared of all the dinosaurs. It has appeared in movies and Tv Shows for decades and is a common icon in many museums.  

Even though it is well known, there are many facts about the T-Rex that might surprise you. Here is a list of little know details about the king of the dinosaurs.  

 Arm size 

The Tyrannosaurus Rex is known for its small arms. Many people think that these arms are too small and puny to be of any real use, but that isn't the case. These arms are actually over three feet long and had enough power to bench press about 400 pounds each. That kind of strength is nothing to sneeze at.

A T-Rex's arms appear small in comparison to its body so many people came to the conclusion that they were weak, but this is only appearance. A T-Rex's arms contain plenty of strength.

Females 

Another interesting fact about the T-Rex was that the females were bigger than the males. This is surprising to most people as many assume that the male is one of the biggest dinosaurs.

Scientists have studied several fossils and come to the conclusion that the females were actually several thousand pounds heavier than the males. They suspect that the larger size was due to the females having larger hips. This was necessary so they could lay a clutch of eggs large enough for T-Rex's to hatch from. They may also have been the primary hunters, similar to modern lions.  

 Scavenger 

The Tyrannosaurus Rex is known for being a fierce fighter and hunter. We often see images of the T-Rex attacking the helpless Triceratops or fighting with other T-Rex's. But you may not know that the T-Rex was actually a scavenger.

The T-Rex was a hunter and fighter, but when food was scarce, it would have no problem picking at corpses and offal that it found on its travels. Stealing a kill from smaller dinosaurs was also a common occurrence.

For a long time, scientists debated whether the T-Rex was a hunter or a scavenger. All their arguments and research have led to the conclusion that the T-Rex was both. 

Animatronic Dinosaurs 

The T-Rex is one of the most commonly built dinosaurs using animatronics. You can see replicas of this beast in stage shows, theme parks and movies all over the world. You can even buy a realistic T-Rex costume, complete with animatronic features and realistic sounds, from OnlyDinosaurs.

The T-Rex was the star of Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park movie and appeared in all of the follow-up sequels. There is no doubt that the T-Rex is the favorite dinosaur of most people the world over. 

Not the biggest 

For a long time, many people believed that the T-Rex was the largest carnivorous dinosaur on land. The T-Rex was 40 feet long from nose to tail and weighed about nine tons. That's pretty big, but there are a couple of carnivorous dinosaurs that were larger than that. 

The Spinosaurus was another massive carnivore that weighed around ten tons. You may have seen one in the movie Jurassic Park 3. The Spinosaurus lived several million years apart from the T-Rex, so they never actually met.  

The Giganotosaurus weighed about ten tons as well and was slightly larger than T-Rex. It was about half a ton lighter than Spinosaurus and it also lived millions of years apart from T-Rex. 

Poisonous bite 

The T-rex ate meat and much of it would have remained in its teeth turning rancid. This made the T-Rex's mouth a septic trap. If it bit an animal, the bite would become infected and the animal would eventually die if it escaped in the first place. 

It's debatable if this killing method was any advantage to the T-Rex. It likely took a week or more for and animal to die from infection, and by that time it would have had plenty of time to get away. When it eventually died, it was most likely eaten by other, smaller dinosaurs, so the T-Rex would miss out.

It's possible that this septic bite helped the T-Rex dominate an area with other large predators in it by killing them off even when they couldn't be beaten in a straight-up fight. 

Feathers 

The T-Rex is depicted as covered in scales like a giant lizard, but scientists now know that it had feathers on its head and some on its tail as well. These were most likely to attract attention for mating or some other form of communication. 

Baby T-Rex's were covered in feathers and may have looked something like large Turkeys. They were most likely born covered in peach fuzz, similar to baby ducklings. As they grew older, they lost the feathers on most of their bodies, keeping only the ones on their head, neck, and tail. 

Life span

The T-Rex lived for around 30 years. It is difficult to judge how long a dinosaur may have lived for, but paleontologists were able to come up with an accurate idea after examining and comparing various fossils.

The T-Rex was at the top of the food chain during the period in which it lived, so it most likely wouldn't have been killed by another dinosaur. It most likely died from old age, suffering from disease or starvation.  

Bite 

The T-Rex had a very powerful bite. A study from the nineties found that a T-Rex's bite was from 1500 to 3000 pounds per square inch. This is very similar to the bite of a modern alligator.

More recent studies put its bite at around 5000 pounds per square inch. To give you an idea of how strong that is, a human has a bite of around 175 pounds per square inch. 

It is thought that the T-Rex could bite through the horn of a Triceratops. Whatever the truth is, the T-Rex had a powerful bite that was more than a match for its peers.