So what color was Tyrannosaurus rex? We do not get skin or scale colors from bones. We HAVE gotten colors from T. rex relatives who grew feathers. Some paleontologist at the University of Utah think that someday we WILL find a feathered T. rex. But maybe we never will. Perhaps T. rex was too big to need feathers. With large animals like rhinos and elephants their skin is mostly bare because their problem, in warm climates is loosing heat, not staying warm. This seems to indicate that maybe a very large dinosaur like T. rex would not need any skin covering like feathers. So if this is the case, what color was T. rex skin...or scales. To determine this we need to look at modern animals and make an inference, Modern animals, some of them, have stripes, spots, or other patterns. Lizards, some big cats, zebras, some cows, some horses, and etc are examples of animals with spots or stripes.
So that being the case, maybe T. rex had stripes. Stripes help a predator hide in forest or tall grass. Stripes also help a species to recognize fellow members of their speices...in other words, a tiger can recognize another tiger.
Spots can help predators hide among leaves of a forest. And of course spots also help leopards recognize other leopards. . . OR help jaguars recognize other jaguars.
An inference is when we make a conclusion or supposition about an unknown fact based upon known fact, So if some modern predators have stripes or spots, then perhaps T. rex had stripes or spots.
T. rex with Spots
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