Happy Birthday Tyrannosaurus Rex
One of the most iconic, loved and easily one of the most recognizable Dinosaurs ever discovered. You have been stopping around in our imagination for 113 years, and we all can’t thank you enough for it! The first partial skeleton of T-Rex was discovered in 1900 and then a second holotype specimen in 1902, but it was Henry Fairfield Osborn president of the American Museum of Natural History, who gave the “Tyrant Lizard King” its name on October 5th, 1905.
Living 68-66 million years ago in North America and is still currently the clear choice for the most dominant predator in this area, at the time. Measuring 40ft long, 12ft high at the hips, and weighing up to 18 metric tons, and packing a bite force over 14,000 pounds! Making this animal’s bite the largest known bite force of any terrestrial animal in earths history. Let’s not forget a skull measuring 5ft long with thick, up to 12-inch-long bone crushing teeth.
More than 50 specimens of Tyrannosaurus Rex have been identified, some of which are nearly complete skeletons. Soft tissue and proteins have been reported in at least one of these specimens. The abundance of fossil material has allowed significant research into many aspects of its biology, including its life history and bio-mechanics the feeding habits, physiology and potential speed of Tyrannosaurus Rex are a few subjects of debate.
Our beloved T-Rex has made an appearance in over 100 TV series and movies. She is even in and part of the logo for one of our personal favorites, “Jurassic Park.” Rexy has thrilled us on the big screen and we can only hope that she was just as impressive in real life as we can only imagine her. Though it has taken us quite a long time to get a good grasp of what you really looked like.
Happy Birthday to one of the coolest animals ever to have walked the earth!
#Rexy #TyrannosaurusRex #happybirthday #113yearsold #jurassicpark#thelostworld #Jurassicworld #jurassicjabber
Teeth from what is now documented as a Tyrannosaurus rex were found in 1874 by Arthur Lakes near Golden, Colorado. In the early 1890s, John Bell Hatcher collected postcranial elements in eastern Wyoming. The fossils were believed to be from a large species of Ornithomimus (O. grandis) but are now considered Tyrannosaurus rex remains. Vertebral fragments found by Edward Drinker Cope in western South Dakota in 1892 and assigned to Manospondylus gigas have also been recognized as belonging to Tyrannosaurus rex.
Barnum Brown, assistant curator of the American Museum of Natural History, found the first partial skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex in eastern Wyoming in 1900. H. F. Osborn originally named this skeleton Dynamosaurus imperiosus in a paper in 1905. Brown found another partial skeleton in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana in 1902. Osborn used this holotype to describe Tyrannosaurus rex in the same paper in which D. imperiosus was described.[47] In 1906, Osborn recognized the two as synonyms, and acted as first revisor by selecting Tyrannosaurus as the valid name.
The species Tyrannosaurus rex (rex meaning "king" in Latin), often colloquially called simply T. rex or T-Rex, is one of the most well-represented of the large theropods. Tyrannosaurus lived throughout what is now western North America, on what was then an island continent known as Laramidia. Tyrannosaurus had a much wider range than other tyrannosaurids. Fossils are found in a variety of rock formations dating to the Maastrichtian age of the upper Cretaceous Period, 68 to 66 million years ago. It was the last known member of the tyrannosaurids, and among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
Like other tyrannosaurids, Tyrannosaurus was a bipedal carnivore with a massive skull balanced by a long, heavy tail. Relative to its large and powerful hindlimbs, Tyrannosaurus forelimbs were short but unusually powerful for their size and had two clawed digits. The most complete specimen measures up to 12.3 m (40 ft) in length, up to 3.66 meters (12 ft) tall at the hips, and according to most modern estimates 8.4 metric tons (9.3 short tons) to 14 metric tons (15.4 short tons) in weight. Although other theropods rivaled or exceeded Tyrannosaurus rex in size, it is still among the largest known land predators and is estimated to have exerted the largest bite force among all terrestrial animals. By far the largest carnivore in its environment, Tyrannosaurus rex was most likely an apex predator, preying upon hadrosaurs, armoured herbivores like ceratopsians and ankylosaurs, and possibly sauropods. Some experts have suggested the dinosaur was primarily a scavenger. The question of whether Tyrannosaurus was an apex predator or a pure scavenger was among the longest debates in paleontology. Most paleontologists today accept that Tyrannosaurus was both an active predator and a scavenger.
More than 50 specimens of Tyrannosaurus rex have been identified, some of which are nearly complete skeletons. Soft tissueand proteins have been reported in at least one of these specimens. The abundance of fossil material has allowed significant research into many aspects of its biology, including its life history and biomechanics. The feeding habits, physiology and potential speed of Tyrannosaurus rex are a few subjects of debate. Its taxonomy is also controversial, as some scientists consider Tarbosaurus bataar from Asia to be a second Tyrannosaurus species while others maintain Tarbosaurus is a separate genus. Several other genera of North American tyrannosaurids have also been synonymized with Tyrannosaurus.
As the archetypal theropod, Tyrannosaurus is one of the best-known dinosaurs since the 20th century, and has been featured in film, advertising, and postal stamps, as well as many other types of media.
