Tyrannosaurus rex's Environment or the Environment of the Late Cretaceous Period

Tyrannosaurus rex ignoring a Volcano

(new drawing)

Tyrannosaurus rex lived in the late Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era.  This was a time of  increased volcanic activity.  Fossil evidence along the Red Deer River of Montana indicates that there were dinosaur species disappearing during this time.  In fact, it had gone from around 20 species in the area at around 70 million years ago to just about 5 species at 65 million years ago.  Paleontologists and geologists think that there was an upsurge of volcanic activity and this may have been poisoning the environment. . . leading to the die off and extinction of several species.  The T. rex and Triceratops were some of the last surviving species.  There Pteranodon or flying reptile or Pterosaur that you see in the drawing was also one of the last large reptiles of the period to survive. 

I figured that since there were so many volcanic eruptions going on, that if it did not include a pyroclastic cloud from a "blow off the top" explosive eruption . . . then a T. rex might very well ignore an eruption if it was not too close.   

You may wonder about the flowers.  It is thought that flowering plants first appeared in the Cretaceous...but newer data is showing that there may have been flowering plants dating back to just BEFORE the dinosaurs.   In either case the flowers were around it T. rex's time.  There are also grasses in this drawing.  This is also not a mistake.  It was once thought that grass did not occur til just at the very end of the Cretaceous, but new evidence from Hadrosaur coprolite shows otherwise.  Coprolite is fossilized animal droppings and Hadrosaurs are duck billed dinosaurs.  So. . . they found 5 different species of grass seed in Hadrosaur coprolite.  This indicates that the dinosaurs were feeding on grass AND the presence of 5 species indicates that grass had started to radiate. . . that is, evolve into different species.  

So when you look at my older drawings you may see little or no grass in the Cretaceous Period drawings.  But my more recent drawings of the Cretaceous have grass and flowers.

Triceratops

(Older drawing)

T. rex runs from the Pyroclastic Flow

Previously drawn but from only a few weeks ago.  This shows a feathered T. rex.  Some paleontologists strongly suspect that T. rex had feathers.  They saw it is only a matter of time before we find evidence of a feathered Tyrannosaurus rex.