Tyrannosaurus rex

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Tyrannosaurus rex:  on hatching day

T-rex was a large Theropod carnivorous dinosaur, (it ate meat).  

Its name means "tyrant lizard king or king of the tyrant lizards.  T-rex was the top land predator of the late Cretaceous Period.  

There had been several other types of Tyrannosaurs that came before it, but Tyrannosaurus rex was the largest!  Tyrannosaurs rex was around from about 68-65 million years ago.  

Fossil evidence suggests that Tyrannosaurs lived and hunted in packs.  Smaller, more agile "teenagers" would chase prey animals into an ambush where adults were waiting, (kind of like how modern lion prides hunt). T-rex had an incredibly powerful bite that could crush bone.  

In fact, it is estimated that T.-rex had a bite that was more powerful than any other land animal ever!  T-rex coprolite (fossilized droppings) has been found with bone pieces of other dinosaurs imbedded in the droppings.  So a Tyrannosaurus rex pretty much ate the entire prey animal, bones & all.  T-rex was up to 40 feet long and new estimates of its weight put it at 18,000 pounds or 9 tons. New research is also implying that  young Tyrannosaur grew close to 4000 pounds per year.

All Tyrannosaurs had banana-shaped, serrated teeth that were up to 12 inches long...except for the very front teeth that were smaller and used to tear meat off the bone.  All the teeth were serrated like a steak knife.  Some Paleontologist's think the serrations in the teeth held bits of toxic bacteria filled meat.  Tyrannosaurs were immune to the bacteria.  But when T-rex bit another non-Tyrannosaur dinosaur then that dinosaur became infected with a deadly infection.  So if a Tyrannosaur bit a duck-billed dinosaur then all the Tyrannosaur had to do is wait for that hadrosaur to become weakened from the infection then close in for the kill & dinner!  

T-rex had relatively small arms with only two fingers.  Some Paleontologist's think it used its arms to begin the process of standing after laying down.  Yes, the arms look small compared to the rest of the large body, but those arms could possibly have bench pressed 500 pounds each!  T-rex was probably both a scavenger (ate dead things it found) AND a predator, (killed and ate other animals).

Tyrannosaurus rex with Young for small children to color. 

Below is one of my detailed drawings in color.  If you look closely you might see that there is an optical illusion where the front T. rex appears to be turning his or her head to look at each of the Triceratops. 

T. rex vs Triceratops Copyright 2008 Robin Lyman