T-Rex Had Quite a Bite

As imposing as Tyrannosaurus Rex must have looked, some scientists have contended for years that it was likely a scavenger, not possessing the bite force to be an effective predator.

Photo: Christophe Hendrickx

However, new research is suggesting that this might not have been the case. According to National Geographic News, scientists have digitized T-Rex skulls and reconstructed them virtually to discover their true potential bite force, and the results have been surprising.  With the size of T-Rex’s jaw muscles, scientists estimate it could have generated over 12,000lbs of force at its back teeth; more than ten times the power of an alligator! If this is true, it would mean T-Rex possessed the strongest bite of any known land animal in history and most likely hunted for whatever it wanted!

Tyrannosaurus Rex – King of the Dinosaurs?

Tyrannosaurus Rex was a large carnivorous dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous period from approximately 67 to 65.5 million years ago. It is the largest, most wide-ranging and best known of the Tyrannosauridae family, reaching a length of up to 42 feet and an estimated weight of 15,000lbs. Tyrannosaurus Rex is recognized as one of the last terrestrial dinosaurs prior the mass extinction that occurred at the end of the cretaceous period.

"Jane" - a well-known specimen.

Tyrannosaurus Rex is best recognized by its extremely long head (up to 5 feet in length), long, powerful legs and extremely small two-fingered forelimbs. It was originally believed that bipedal dinosaurs such as T-Rex walked and stood nearly upright with their tails dragging on the ground. In the 1970’s paleontologists began to realize that such a posture would be impossible for these animals, and it has now been determined that T-Rex walked with its body nearly parallel to the ground with its massive tail helping to balance the weight of its heavy head.

Early 20th century depiction of T. Rex walking upright.

T-Rex’s life habits have long been a subject of debate. Although likely an apex predator, there are still some who believe that Tyrannosaurus was primarily a scavenger. These beliefs stem from the fact that T-Rex, with so much weight at opposite ends of its body, could not have been very agile and may have required several seconds to change direction. However, it was still likely fast enough to catch large prey, with its top speed estimated to be between 25 and 45mph. Additionally, T-Rex’s tiny forelimbs, once thought to be useless, are now believed to have been very strong and likely to hold prey down while feeding.

Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils have been found throughout what is now western North America. The T-Rex’s size, fearsome appearance and relatively large amount of remains have led it to become perhaps the world’s best known dinosaur, and a subject of many fictitious books and movies.

Velociraptors Weren’t So Scary

Next to Tyrannosaurus Rex, probably no other dinosaur is as recognizable as the velociraptor. In the 1990 book and subsequent film Jurassic Park the raptors truly were the stars.

Depicted as six foot tall pack hunting lizards with razor sharp teeth and claws, the velociraptors of the movie were about as scary as dinosaurs get. The only problem is that real-life velociraptors didn’t look or act anything like that.

Illustration by Matt Martyniuk

Above is an illustration of what paleontologists believe the velociraptor really looked like. Quill knobs found in fossils prove that it was completely covered in feathers, and the long stiffened tail was likely used for balance. However, feathers or not, the biggest inaccuracy in the film and book was the velociraptor’s size, as in real life it only stood about two feet tall and weighed 30lbs.

Illustration by Matt Martyniuk

However, you can’t totally place the blame on author Michael Crichton. The raptors of the book and movie were based more upon deinonychus, a much larger ancestor of the velociraptor that lived 40 million years earlier and was over 11 feet long. At the time of the book’s writing, some paleontologists believed that the two were more closely related than they actually are.

Of course, the book and movie were both works of fiction and would have been much less entertaining if the main antagonists resembled a pack of angry roadrunners. Besides, as far as we know T-Rex was still pretty scary!