Palaeontology

Tyrannosaurus rex may have been much larger than previously thought

By T.K. Randall
July 25, 2024

Image: Tyrannosaurus Rex Holotype
Credit: ScottRobertAnselmo / CC BY-SA 3.0 (adapted) Tyrannosaurus rex - arguably the poster child of the dinosaur world - certainly needs no introduction.

Sporting rows of razor sharp teeth, this enormous land-dwelling carnivore was one of the most fearsome predators ever to walk the face of the Earth.

According to some scientists, however, the Tyrannosaurus rex specimens we have found to date do not fully reflect the maximum size that these huge reptiles might have actually reached.

The largest individuals may have been 70% heavier and 25% longer than anything we've seen so far."[We] really have no idea from the fossil record about the absolute sizes they might have reached," said Dr Jordan Mallon of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.

"It's fun to think about a 15 tonne T. rex, but the implications are also interesting from a biomechanical or ecological perspective."

Actually finding an example of such a gargantuan Tyrannosaurus rex, however, would be challenging.

Due to how rare these fossils are and how infrequently they are found, it could take another 1,000 years of digging up bones to actually find a specimen within the 99th percentile of size.

What it would have been like to meet such an animal face to face, we can only imagine.

Source: Sky News

Tags: Tyrannosaurus, Dinosaur