Tyrannosaurus rex is the largest predatory dinosaur: description with photos and videos. The most terrible predators of the Earth: Tyrannosaurus Tyrannosaurus description

Truly the most impressive land predator in the history of our planet. - the accepted Latin name. It comes from two ancient Greek words: tyrant lizard. In terms of body size, it is now the third land predator, second only to Spinosaurus and Giganotosaurus. However, in many respects, including general muscles and the massiveness of the head, it is superior to the latter. The correct spelling in Russian is with two “n”.

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Time and place of existence

Tyrannosaurs lived at the end of the Cretaceous period about 68 - 66 million years ago. They were very widespread in what is now North America (Canada and the United States).

Superb artistic reconstruction by Ukrainian paleoartist Sergei Krasovsky. The dinosaur exudes menace, power and displays a fiery character.

Types and history of discovery

In fact, only one species has been confirmed , which translates from Latin as royal lizard tyrant.

Body structure

The body length of this creature reached 12.3 meters (specimen FMNH PR2081, nicknamed Sue). The height is up to 3.6 m. An adult representative of tyrannosaurs weighed up to 8870 kilograms (RSM P2523.8, nicknamed Scotty).

Comparison of Tyrannosaurus Sue and a man performed by Scott Hartman (USA).

The Cretaceous theropod moved on two strong legs. It rested on three long fingers with sharp claws. Another reduced finger was located behind. The height of the tyrannosaurus at the hips is about 3.4 m. The forelimbs look very unusual in comparison with the rest of the body. They are extremely small (highly reduced), and each is equipped with only two small fingers.

The impressive, massive head was attached to a short, powerful neck. The photograph below shows one of the contenders for the title of large tyrannosaurus skull, specimen MOR 008. The stated length is 1.5 m. This is the real pride of the Mesozoic exhibition of the Museum of the Rocky Mountains (Bozeman, Montana, USA).

Due to its special nature, the fossil circulates around the world on long tours. However, there are doubts about the reliability of the reconstruction.

The question of the largest Tyrannosaurus rex skull is discussed on our channel.

You can imagine what the giant's muscles were like. The neck had to withstand the sudden stress of jerking. Both jaws were ideally designed for quickly tearing off a piece of meat. The sharp teeth were curved back, which prevented the victim from escaping from the jaws. They were jagged along the edges, which made it possible to break through even solid elements.

The thick spine was capable of withstanding colossal overloads.

The figure shows a reconstruction of a North Dakota landscape with two adults. The leathery ridges above the eyes are just the artist’s assumption.

Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton

The photo shows an exhibit of the species Tyrannosaurus rex with the assigned name Sue (specimen FMNH PR2081). Main hall of the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, USA)

Look also at a high-quality photograph of one of the most formidable skulls, and at the same time well preserved. This is the head of an individual named Samson on display at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (Portland, USA).

Nutrition and lifestyle

Some scientists put forward deliberately erroneous assumptions that the main food of the animal was carrion. A creature that fed primarily on corpses would not need such a massive skeleton with the corresponding muscles. And incredible, even in comparison with other giant theropods, weapons. To eat dead bodies, this is not required at all - the jaw apparatus of abelisaurids or coelophysioids is sufficient. With powerful legs and practically atrophied upper limbs, the tyrant lizard represented a model of a pronounced predator, honed by evolution. Top of the food chain.

It is important to note that, having encountered the remains of animals in a condition acceptable for consumption, the tyrannosaurus, of course, did not disdain them. This is normal for most modern predators. Moreover, the tyrannosaurus, given the opportunity, could drive away small dinosaurs from their prey.

Panoramic painting by Canadian paleoartist Julius Csotonyi (click to enlarge). The discovery of an adult tyrannosaurus promises him a dinner of seafood. A Late Cretaceous predator stumbled upon the carcass of a mosasaurus stranded on the shore after low tide. A lone Triceratops is grazing in the distance to the right.

There is evidence that Tyrannosaurus may have fed on late Maastrichtian sauropods: a tooth was found embedded in the neck vertebra of an Alamosaurus. In this case, it is unknown whether the lizard killed the sauropod on its own or found it already dead.

T-rex is the most popular dinosaur at the moment. He appears in hundreds of books, cartoons and films.

A Tyrannosaurus with a baby under an orange sky literally overrun with flying lizards. Illustration by Todd Marshall (USA).

Video

Excerpt from the documentary "Dinosaur Battles". The power of the jaws, the effectiveness of the teeth, as well as other features of the body structure of the “terrible lizard” are shown.

Excerpt from the documentary "When Dinosaurs Roamed America." We see a young Tyrannosaurus rex and its mother hunting for Late Cretaceous ornithopods, Edmontosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus, which lived during the Cretaceous period, had a body length of about 14 m; he lived in Asia, North America; it is the largest carnivorous land animal ever to exist.

The largest was the tyrannosaurus, 5-6 meters high and 12 m long. Its mouth was 1 m long. In one sitting, it could swallow prey weighing 200 kg. Tyrannosaurs – the most terrible land predators in the history of the planet. Adult individuals weighed about 5-6 tons, and therefore were 15 times heavier than the largest modern predator - the polar bear. The dinosaur that walked the Earth 65 million years ago was the largest land predator of all time.

How long did tyrannosaurs live?
Tyrannosaurs, the most feared land predators in the history of the planet, died young. The predator grew quickly, gaining two kilograms a day, like a modern African elephant. How did they manage to grow to such sizes? Some experts believed that they grew slowly throughout their lives, others that they grew rapidly in their youth, and then the rate of increase in size slowed down, as in birds and mammals. that all these creatures were between two and 28 years old at the time of death. The animals grew the most in the 14th to 18th years of their lives, subsequently maintaining the achieved sizes.

Feathered Tyrannosaurus

Ancestors tyrannosaurus were covered with small feathers rather than bare skin. The skeleton of the ancestor, about 130 million years old, is the most ancient representative of the genus of tyrannosaurs, and is still the only one whose “feathering” is beyond doubt among paleontologists. It was about one and a half meters from the nose to the tip of the tail. However, it walked on its hind legs and was a formidable predator - for smaller herbivorous dinosaurs. The tyrannosaurus itself was unlikely to be covered with feathers - they would have hindered it more than helped it; due to its large size, it was more important for it to give off excess heat to the surrounding world so as not to overheat. However, its "chicks" could hatch from eggs covered with some analogue of down, and lose it as they grow older. Slow predators

The largest predator in the dinosaur world was probably quite slow.
Tyrannosaur rex could not accelerate to a speed of more than 40 km/h, although many scientists believe that it was capable of running almost twice as fast. Scientists made their conclusions based on a computer model of a six-ton ​​lizard.

What did tyrannosaurs eat?

The size of tyrannosaurs posed problems for these animals - as they became larger, they most likely gradually lost the ability to move quickly. Young small animals could reach speeds of up to 40 kilometers per hour, but as soon as the weight became more than a ton, this became impossible for biomechanical reasons. So if this animal was a predator and not a scavenger, it seems a mystery how it managed to obtain enough food to maintain a gigantic body growth rate. Perhaps the Jurassic ecosystem produced enough carrion that the tyrannosaurs simply did not need to actively hunt. There was plenty of carrion around. It is still unclear whether tyrannosaurs were predators, or fed primarily on carrion?

Powerful bite

The tyrannosaurus did not simply sink its teeth into the body of the victim, as, say, lions do today. He quickly and easily bit through muscles, cartilage and even thick bones to great depths, and then tore large pieces of flesh out of the victim. The ground bones were eaten along with the meat. Tyrannosaurus had a very strong skull and jaw. And the most amazing thing is that the monster also had a whole shock absorption system. In particular, unlike most animals, part of the bones that make up the skull of the tyrannosaurus retained some mobility relative to each other. Connective tissues helped dissipate the impact energy. Of course, this way of feeding the tyrannosaurus was also facilitated by its sharp 15-centimeter teeth.

In The Tyrannosaurus Chronicles: The Biology and Evolution of the World's Most Famous Predator, renowned tyrannosaurus expert David Hone provides the most complete understanding of the evolution and all aspects of the lives of these amazing ancient reptiles and their contemporaries in the light of the latest paleontological research.

Too often, when it comes to tyrannosaurs - or any dinosaurs for that matter - the main focus of attention falls on one tyrannosaurus. Of all the dinosaurs, it is by far the most well-known to the general public, and as a result, virtually every new dinosaur (and even many non-dinosaur) discovery seems to be compared to it. Such is the appeal and recognition of the dinosaur “tyrant king” that he has become a media standard, regardless of whether he is related to any particular story.

Of course, the tyrannosaurus was a surprisingly interesting animal in its own way, but excessive attention to it as a kind of benchmark for comparison is often unjustified. It was no more a typical dinosaur than aardvarks, lemurs or kangaroos are typical mammals. It was an animal with features honed by the pressures of evolutionary selection, down to a form quite different from most other theropods and, even at the extreme, from most other tyrannosaurs. Although Tyrannosaurus's closest relatives in the genera Tarbosaurus and Zhuchentyrannus were very similar to it, it stands out among them in that it has been disproportionately studied over the decades, and because as a consequence we now know more about it than about any other dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus rex became the best model for future research. Like the fruit fly Drosophila (Drosophila melanogaster)- the centerpiece of genetic research, the smooth clawed frog (Xenopus laevis)- neurology, and a small round worm is a nematode (Caenorhabditis elegans)- developmental biology, so Tyrannosaurus is the key animal for most dinosaur research. This has clearly contributed to its overvaluation in the public eye (and even in some scientific circles), but it also means that it is the most studied of all dinosaurs.

We simply know more about Tyrannosaurus Rex than any other extinct dinosaur, and as a result its biology is an excellent subject for discussion (and, for me, as luck would have it, an ideal topic for writing a book).

The downside to this situation is that I have had to refer to Tyrannosaurus a lot more often than I would have liked, simply because it is often the only member of the clade for which that particular trait or behavior has been confirmed. Other taxa are poorly understood, and although some are actually quite new (such as Yutyrannus and Lithronax) and others are known from very little material (Proceratosaurus, Aviatyrannis) or both (Nanucsaurus), further work is required much more research into the anatomy, evolution, and especially the ecology and behavior of many non-tyrannosaurine tyrannosaurs. It is likely that early forms, partly due to their relative unspecialization, can in some sense be grouped with animals like the small Megalosaurus or Allosaurus in terms of potential prey, feeding methods, etc. However, Tyrannosaurus is especially interesting not so much for what kind of animal it was , as well as how it became that way, as well as the evolutionary paths that turned early tyrannosaurs into such incredible animals as Albertosaurines and Tyrannosaurines.

Another problem is that dinosaurs in general, and T. rex in particular, can give some people some very strange ideas. No field of science is exempt from occasional eccentric concepts, which can come from even talented and respected scientists, not just “fringe” authors. Even if some controversial issues are eventually resolved in academic circles, information about it does not necessarily go beyond these circles; “scientists have reached an agreement” is not as exciting news as “new scandalous discussions around the tyrannosaurus rex.” Thus, the public often only gets to hear the beginning of the story, with much less attention paid to what follows. This, first of all, became the reason that the topic of “predator or scavenger” is endlessly discussed, while, firstly, it was hardly worth raising at all, and secondly, it has been dismantled to pieces in the scientific literature more than once times (most extensively by paleontologist Tom Holtz in 2008).

Some of these points have already been mentioned by me, while others have been largely omitted for the sake of clarity in the presentation of the relevant chapters, but they are worth returning to because they usually give rise to misconceptions or have a significant influence on our understanding of these animals. I will add here that in recent years there has been a situation where the media are taking seriously ideas that can only be called intriguing out of generosity: for example, that dinosaurs lived in water or that they evolved on other planets in parallel worlds and are alive and well today, having escaped in its cosmic mass extinction home. I won't delve into such fringe ideas here (they're covered in more detail on the internet), but there is serious debate in the scientific literature about some plausible theories, and they're hard to ignore. And the first - and main - of them is the problem of nanotyrannus.

Baby Tyrannosaurus?

The collections of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History display a very modest-sized theropod skull. This skull is clearly that of a tyrannosaurine: the broad rear quickly tapers towards the front, converging to a long but still broad snout with a rounded end, and the jaws contain a relatively small number of large teeth.

In fact, it looks quite similar to the skull of a Tyrannosaurus rex, only less than half the expected size: it is just over 50 cm long. Although this skull appears to have belonged to an animal of considerable size, the creature's total length was probably closer to five meters than the size of a typical adult tyrannosaurus.

Originally described as a Gorgosaurus specimen by paleontologist Charles Gilmore in 1946, the skull remained the subject of much debate for many years. Partly because it is somewhat younger than Gorgosaurus and may in fact have been contemporary with Tyrannosaurus, but also because it is not a Gorgosaurus skull, but some other animal.

The key question is: did it belong to a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex, or is it the skull of a miniature Tyrannosaurus rex that lived alongside the most famous of dinosaurs? The second hypothesis was formally proposed by Bob Bakker and his co-authors in a 1988 paper, where they noted that some of the skull bones appeared fused. If so, this represents the skull of an adult specimen, and although the animal may have grown a little later, it was clearly significantly smaller than any other North American tyrannosaurus from the Late Cretaceous, and also deserved recognition as a species. Due to its small size it was called nanotyrannus.

Since then, debate has raged as to whether this animal is a representative of a separate taxon, since the fusion of some skull bones alone can hardly be considered a determining indicator of the maturity of an individual. What is important is this: if the skull represents a new taxon, then Tyrannosaurus is not the only tyrannosaurus of its time in America, and the large size gap between Tyrannosaurus and the various dromaeosaurs and troodontids is at least partially filled by Nanotyrannus, implying a completely different ecology for the predators of this period. than previously thought. At the same time, if the skull belongs to a juvenile Tyrannosaurus, we will have an excellent opportunity to study the growth and development of animals of this species; With a very young specimen of Tarbosaurus already known, there is a huge scope for studying how these animals changed with age and questions about the possible ecological separation between juvenile and adult individuals.

Those who support the identification of Nanotyrannus as a new species point to some features in the morphology of the skull that are not observed in known Tyrannosaurus specimens. For example, the jaws of Nanotyrannus have several more teeth, but individual variation is always possible in this area, and it is unclear how the teeth could change as the animal grew. We already know that the proportions of the limbs and the shape of the skull changed, so that some other elements could well appear and disappear during the growth process. However, the number of teeth appears to have varied between different ages of gorgosaurs, and the same may be true for Tyrannosaurus (even if not applicable to Tarbosaurus), but the number of teeth in tyrannosaurs as a whole was probably a highly variable trait. Moreover, additional analyzes, such as those performed by Thomas Carr, suggest that Nanotyrannus and Tyrannosaurus share common features, and the first specimen is a juvenile rather than an adult.

This problem is further complicated by the presence of Jane (a name, like most others, given in honor of the merits of an individual, rather than indicative of the individual's sex) - a largely preserved specimen of a young Tyrannosaurine, which has also been attributed to either Nanotyrannus or Tyrannosaurus (see illustration) below). Jane was clearly a juvenile, as her skeleton contains many unfused bony sutures, and some histological evidence also points to a juvenile animal, but is it a juvenile Tyrannosaurus or a second Nanotyrannus? Jane's specimen was over six meters in length at the time of death, and therefore, given the significant growth ahead, it is unlikely to have been a "dwarf" animal; Moreover, it was found to have more teeth than a typical adult Tyrannosaurus, supporting the idea that the number of teeth decreased as it grew. Several features unique to a Tyrannosaurus rex are observed in Jane, also supporting the idea that she is a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex. However, given the similarity between Jane's skull and the Cleveland find, it can be assumed that the second one is also “just” a young tyrannosaurus.

The skeleton of an individual named Jane, which most researchers consider to be a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex (an adult skeleton is shown for comparison), but is also hypothesized to be a small species of Tyrannosaurus rex. Note differences in leg length and shape of skull and pelvis

Hawn D. The Tyrannosaurus Chronicles. - M.: Alpina non-fiction, 2017

And the latest complication to the picture is a controversial specimen, recently excavated in the United States and in private hands. A small Tyrannosaurus rex was discovered alongside a ceratopsian, presumably representing the result of a death match (needless to say, most experts are very skeptical about this), and it was hypothesized that this new specimen "solved" the problem of Nanotyrannus. However, although this specimen is for sale, it has not been made available to scientists, so for now this theory remains purely in the realm of fantasy. A few not very good photos of a partially assembled specimen is not something to base judgment on, so for now this specimen remains an unfortunate side branch of the overall problem.

There is growing evidence that both Jane and the Cleveland skull belong to true tyrannosaurs, based in part on comparisons with very juvenile Tarbosaurus specimens from Mongolia and growth trends observed in other dinosaurs. If this assumption is correct, we have an excellent growth scale for Tyrannosaurus, further supported by a small fragment of a snout preserved in Los Angeles, belonging to a very small individual, about a year old judging by its size. Essentially, all this suggests that there are certain differences between tyrannosaurines. Even when split, the skull of the small Tarbosaurus looks more like an adult, i.e. it is assumed that the animal retained approximately the same shape of the skull at all ages; it simply became larger.

Meanwhile, Jane's skull is more similar to that of an early Tyrannosaurus or Alioramin (long and narrow, without a wide back); as it grew, the back wall “swelled”, forming the classic shape of a Tyrannosaurus rex skull. This indicates significant changes in the functioning of the skull and, possibly as a result, in the ecology of the animal. At this point, despite some compelling counterarguments, it is better to consider nanotyrannus an invalid taxon rather than a distinct dwarf tyrannosaurus, no matter how attractive that idea may be.

Two Tyrannosaurs?

The nanotyrannus problem is just one of a number of taxonomic complications surrounding the question of whether Tyrannosaurus rex was the only late Cretaceous tyrannosaurus in the Americas, as some experts have suggested that there was a second species of tyrannosaurus. The idea for this so-called Tyrannosaurus X first came from paleontologist Dale Russell, although it was given the nickname X by Bob Bakker. It was based primarily on the fact that some specimens of Tyrannosaurus rex had a pair of small teeth on the front of the dentary rather than just one, and also on the fact that the skulls of some specimens appeared significantly larger than others. Based on these and other proposed differences, further researchers took up the idea and suggested that a second Tyrannosaurus rex might be lurking among the existing rex specimens.

In a sense, this would make sense: it is remarkable that Tyrannosaurus appears to have been the only large predator in its ecosystem, whereas both modern mammalian and ancient dinosaur ecosystems typically had two or more species of large predators present. those. The Tyrannosaurus rex ecosystem looks a little strange. However, data is scarce, and the differences between the animals in question are very small. There are, of course, differences between the specimens we have, but we can expect that at least some of this is due to intraspecific variation, and even a few small consistent differences do not necessarily indicate separate species.

This problem resonates with the idea that known Tyrannosaurus rex specimens have two identifiable types of constitution, designated "powerful" and "gracile" forms: that is, one is considered more dense, the other proportionately more fragile. Moreover, it is assumed that these two types of constitution are not simply associated with general differences in appearance, as in thick or thin people, they are supposedly associated with implicit sexual dimorphism, where one form is associated with males and the other with females. As mentioned, some dinosaurs (especially Tyrannosaurus rexes) end up with nicknames, but these nicknames are mostly random and not related to the animal's gender, so Sue is no more female than Bucky or Stan are males. Previous ideas of distinguishing males and females based on the number or shape of bony chevrons have proven ineffective, and the only reliable way to identify a sexually mature female is by the presence of medullary bone. However, even here its absence may indicate either that the animal was a male, or that the death occurred outside the breeding season, and not all specimens were studied (for some unknown reason, many museum curators get nervous when you propose sawing up their dinosaur skeletons. - Author's note).

So, do these “morphs” even exist, and if so, do they correspond to males and females? And which one is which? Most researchers remain highly skeptical of these ideas. Data are limited and most of the material does not overlap in terms of skeletal parts present, and there is variability in time and space. All specimens, separated by thousands of square kilometers and millions of years, are assigned to the same species, but theoretically they should have been representatives of very different populations. Thus, even if there is a sign indicating the possibility of dividing specimens into two groups, how much this picture will be distorted by the errors of such data and the fact that animals almost certainly changed in size and shape during evolution (the growth and variability of individual individuals will also be cause difficulties)?

This is not to rule out any of the hypotheses discussed, but given the inevitable limitations of such analysis, we should look for much more pronounced and consistent differences between the two putative groups.

We do see subtle differences between all possible closely related species, but even so there are usually some consistent and distinct anatomical features that can be used to differentiate them, and this is the basis of the morphological species concept as applied to dinosaurs. We will inevitably have to wait for more data: new information should lead to a clear interpretation of the results, and with enough fossil specimens, it may be possible to analyze a single population to eliminate many of the problems discussed above.

Research continues, and while controversy still arises and is the subject of debate, it actually quite often leads to more research and refinement of ideas, as well as the creation of better diagnostic methods and data sets that support or refute current views. Therefore, controversial ideas can be useful in stimulating new research; problems begin when such assumptions continue to be clinging to long after they have been disproven. The concepts discussed here are at least plausible, advocated and debated by serious scientists, but ideas that are borderline crazy still have value. In any case, they show an inexhaustible fascination with the tyrannosaurus and attention directed towards it.

History of the study

general description

The two-fingered forelimbs are relatively small in comparison with the powerful legs. The tail is long and heavy. The spine consists of 10 cervical, 12 thoracic, five sacral and about 40 caudal vertebrae. The neck, like that of other theropods, is S-shaped, but short and thick to support the massive head. Some bones of the skeleton have voids, thus reducing the overall mass of the body without significant loss of strength. The body weight of an adult tyrannosaurus reached 6-7 tons, the largest individuals (Sue) could weigh about 9.5 tons.

The largest known Tyrannosaurus rex skull is 1.53 m long. There is a fragment of a jaw (UCMP 118 742), the length of which could be 1.75 meters; the estimated weight of the owner of such a jaw could reach 12 - 15 tons. The shape of the skull has significant differences in comparison with theropods from other families: extremely wide at the back, the skull narrows strongly at the front. According to experts, with such a skull structure, tyrannosaurs had excellent binocular vision. The structural features of the skull bones in the tyrannosaurid family make their bite incomparably more powerful compared to other theropods. The apex of the upper jaws is U-shaped (most other carnivorous theropods are V-shaped), which increases the volume of meat and bone that a Tyrannosaurus can tear off in a single bite, although at the expense of additional stress on the front teeth.

Tyrannosaurus teeth vary in shape. The front teeth are D-shaped in cross section and fit tightly together. They are curved inside the mouth and reinforced with ridges on the back side. The position and shape of the front teeth reduce the risk of them being pulled out during biting and pulling. The inner teeth are more banana-shaped than dagger-shaped. They are more widely spaced, but also have strength-enhancing ridges on the back side. The total (including root) length of the largest tooth found is estimated at 30 cm. This is the longest tooth among all found teeth of carnivorous dinosaurs.

Tyrannosaurus walked on its hind limbs, like other members of the tyrannosaurid family.

A Tyrannosaurus running at 5 m/s requires almost 6 liters of oxygen gas per second, which also leads to the idea that Tyrannosaurus is warm-blooded.

Evolution

At approximately the same time as the Tyrannosaurus, a species almost indistinguishable from it lived on the territory of what is now Asia - Tarbosaurus. Tarbosaurs had a slightly more elegant structure and slightly smaller size.

Nutrition method

It has not been conclusively established whether tyrannosaurs were predators or whether they fed on carrion.

Many large herbivorous dinosaurs had protection on their backs, indicating the danger of being attacked by a tall predator with powerful jaws.

Tyrannosaurs are predators and scavengers. Many scientists believe that tyrannosaurs could have had a mixed diet, like modern lions - predators, but could eat the remains of animals killed by hyenas.

Way to travel

The mode of movement of the Tyrannosaurus remains a controversial issue. Some scientists are inclined to believe that they could run, reaching speeds of 40-70 km/h. Others believe that tyrannosaurs walked, not ran.

“Apparently,” writes Herbert Wells in the famous “Essays on the History of Civilization,” “tyrannosaurs moved like kangaroos, relying on a massive tail and hind legs. Some scientists even suggest that the Tyrannosaurus moved by jumping - in this case, it must have had absolutely incredible muscles. A leaping elephant would be much less impressive. Most likely, the tyrannosaurus hunted herbivorous reptiles - inhabitants of swamps. Half immersed in liquid swamp mud, he pursued his prey through the channels and pools of swampy plains, such as the present-day Norfolk swamps or the Everglades swamps in Florida.

The opinion about bipedal dinosaurs similar to kangaroos was widespread until the middle of the 20th century. Examination of the tracks, however, did not show the presence of tail prints. All predatory dinosaurs kept their bodies horizontal when walking, with the tail serving as a counterweight and balancer. In general, the tyrannosaurus is close in appearance to a huge running bird.

Phylogenesis

Recent studies of proteins found in a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex femur have shown the dinosaurs' closeness to birds. Tyrannosaurus is descended from small carnivorous dinosaurs of the late Jurassic era, rather than from carnosaurs. The currently known small ancestors of Tyrannosaurus (such as Dilong from the Early Cretaceous of China) were feathered with fine hair-like feathers. Tyrannosaurus Rex itself may not have had feathers (known impressions of the skin of the Tyrannosaurus rex thigh bear the typical dinosaur pattern of polygonal scales).

Tyrannosaurus in popular culture

Thanks to its enormous size, huge teeth and other impressive attributes, in the 20th century the Tyrannosaurus rex became one of the most recognizable dinosaurs in the world. That is why he often became a “super monster” - a killer dinosaur in films such as “The Lost World”, “King Kong”, etc. The main and most memorable film with the participation of a tyrannosaurus is Steven Spielberg’s film “Jurassic Park”, where this character had undergone careful elaboration and therefore looked very impressive.
In the sequel - the film "Jurassic Park 2" - there was already a whole family of tyrannosaurs present - a male and a female with a cub, which significantly reduced their negative role; Moreover, the pursuit of the tyrannosaurs after the heroes of the film, and then the destruction caused by the male tyrannosaurus on the streets of San Diego, was to some extent justified by their parental instinct and desire to save their cub.
Ultimately, in the film Jurassic Park 3, the developers needed a new dinosaur to play the role of the main villain, and their choice fell on the Egyptian Spinosaurus. The Tyrannosaurus itself only made a cameo appearance in the film.

Tyrannosaurus appears in many documentaries, such as Walking with Dinosaurs, The Truth About Killer Dinosaurs, etc. It was most accurately presented in the documentary series Dinosaur Battles.

The image of the Tyrannosaurus rex has also taken root in cartoons. Under the name "Sharptooth", the tyrannosaurus appears as the main negative character in the popular series of American full-length cartoons "The Land Before Time", the characters of which are dinosaurs.

The Tyrannosaurus also became a character in a number of animated series about Transformers. So, in his “image and likeness” Trypticon was created - a colossal transformer, a Decepticon fortress city. He is also the “mount” of Zadavala, the commander of the “Battle Dinosaur” squad in the series “Transformers: Victory”. The leader of the Predacons, Megatron, transforms into a tyrannosaurus (as the most terrible earthly creature) in the series “Beast Wars”, when the transformers, having arrived on prehistoric Earth, take on the appearance of earthly animals - both living and extinct. However, not only the bearers of an evil principle take on the guise of a tyrannosaurus: Grimlock, the commander of a group of Dinobots - not particularly smart, but powerful robots created by the Autobots and fighting with them against the Decepticons - also transforms into a tyrannosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus is also featured in the Dino Crisis game series. In the game Dino Crisis, he is the most powerful dinosaur (as well as in the game Dino Stalker) throughout the entire game, and in Dino Crisis 2, the Tyrannosaurus only at the end of the game supposedly dies in the fight against the Giganotosaurus, which in the game is presented as much larger (length more than 20 meters) than is known from fossil remains. In the computer game ParaWorld, the Tyrannosaurus is the strongest unit of the Desert race and the strongest unit in the game. In the game, the Tyrannosaurus is much larger than in reality.

Notes

1. Erickson, Gregory M.; Makovicky, Peter J.; Currie, Philip J.; Norell, Mark A.; Yerby, Scott A.; & Brochu, Christopher A. (2004). “Gigantism and comparative life-history parameters of tyrannosaurid dinosaurs.” Nature 430 (7001): 772–775. DOI:10.1038/nature02699.
2. Brochu Christopher A. Osteology of Tyrannosaurus Rex: Insights from a Nearly Complete Skeleton and High-resolution Computed Tomographic Analysis of the Skull. - Northbrook, Illinois: Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2003.
3. see: Denver Formation
4. see en:Lance Formation
5. Breithaupt, Brent H.; Elizabeth H. Southwell and Neffra A. Matthews (2005-10-18). "In Celebration of 100 years of Tyrannosaurus Rex: Manospondylus Gigas, Ornithomimus Grandis, and Dynamosaurus Imperiosus, the Earliest Discoveries of Tyrannosaurus Rex in the West" in 2005 Salt Lake City Annual Meeting . Abstracts with Programs 37 : 406, Geological Society of America. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
6. , p. 81-82
7. , p. 122
8. , p. 112
9. , p. 113
10. , - Northern State University:: Aberdeen, SD
11. Montana State University (2006-04-07). Museum unveils world's largest T-rex skull. Press release . Retrieved 2008-09-13.
12. Mickey Mortimer (2003-07-21). And the Largest Theropod Is..... Press release . Retrieved 2012-04-20.
13. Stevens, Kent A. (June 2006). "Binocular vision in theropod dinosaurs" (PDF). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 26 (2): 321–330. DOI:10.1671/0272-4634(2006)262.0.CO;2.
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For many years, humanity has been interested in the origin and study of dinosaurs. Huge, powerful, but at the same time amazing creatures inspire horror and respect in any of us. There is about the emergence of dinosaurs.

Tyrannosaurus: a predatory dinosaur

The most famous among predators is the tyrannosaurus, better known to us from films and books. He is a symbol of paleontology and an image of primordial power and strength.

According to the scientific classification, tyrannosaurus and several other species similar to it in anthropological characteristics form the so-called group of tyrannosaurids. Of all the species that are included in this group, the most similar to a tyrannosaurus is Tarbosaurus.

Scientists claim that tyrannosaurs lived in North America approximately 65-67 million years ago, that is, at the end of the Cretaceous period. Paleontologists put forward their theory that tyrannosaurs are the prototype of their ancestors - raptorex, which lived in the territory. Raptorex reached a height of 3 meters and weighed about 80 kg, but they are connected with tyrannosaurs by the general structure of the body and skull.

There are several predators that lived on planet Earth even before the Cretaceous period and are superior to tyrannosaurs in size and power.

These dinosaurs are usually classified in the following order:

• Spinosaurus.
• Carcharadontosaurus.
• Gigantosaurus.

They are the most dangerous and powerful predators among their own kind.

Power and characteristics

Tyrannosaurs fed primarily on fish, but due to their speed and strength they could pursue prey for some distance, moving like ostriches. This is evidenced by the found paw prints. Tyrannosaurs were characterized by powerful cheekbones and jaws, but their front legs were very small. They moved with the help of massive hind legs and a tail, which helped maintain balance. The front paws had two toes, and the hind paws had 4.

It is a pity that historians only put forward hypotheses. They are very unique and interesting creatures, and studying them requires a great deal of effort and perseverance.

Gigantosaurus

The remains of an ancient dinosaur were discovered in 1995, and according to scientists' measurements, Gigantosaurus is one of the ancestors of the tyrannosaurus. The animal had small front paws and a massive neck and jaw. The method of movement was small jumps on the hind legs.

Power and sizes

Gigantosaurs ate mainly fish and meat, as well as carrion. According to the age of dinosaurs, they lived side by side with a huge number of sauropods. Some of them had bony plates on their backs that provided them with protection from attacks from above.

If we compare the size and power, Tyrannosaurus would have been defeated against Gigantosaurus, since its ancestor was more developed and adapted to the environment. Since Gigantosaurus lived before its neighbors were no less powerful creatures with whom it had to fight for a place in the sun.

In 1995, the discovery of a gigantosaurus was announced to the world, and this news created a real sensation. For many years, paleontologists believed that the largest and most massive dinosaur was the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The discovery immediately refuted these versions. Tyrannosaurus was inferior to Gigantosaurus in size and skeletal length. Paleontologists from Argentina provided the world with information that the length of the Gigantosaurus skeleton is much greater than that of its predecessor.

Based on the remains found nearby, historians have theorized that the animals moved and fed in groups. In early 2000, scientists and paleontologists from Argentina and Canada announced the discovery of an early relative of Gigantosaurus. In 2006, it received a new name - Mapusaurus - and was several times larger than Tyrannosaurus and Gigantosaurus.

To the question: "Who is bigger - a tyrannosaurus or a giganotosaurus?" - we can confidently answer that it is a gigantosaurus. First of all, based on the data of scientists, it is the gigantosaurus that is the ancestor of the tyrannosaurus, since it lived on our planet even before the Cretaceous period.

So who has the advantage when it comes to Tyrannosaurus vs. Giganotosaurus? These dinosaurs are very similar in structure and skull shape, however, the length of the gigantosaurus skeleton is 13.5 meters, while that of the tyrannosaurus is 12.5 meters.