What was the Tyrannosaurus Rex?

Welcome to Science Is Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira! And I'm Finn! A big hello to six-year-old Alexander in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, who asked why the T-Rex was the fiercest of all the dinosaurs.

This one is for you! And a huge hello to eight-year-old Aidan in Malaysia, whose favourite dinosaur in the whole world is the mighty T-Rex.

If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.

Hey Mira! Since we are talking about Earth's scariest predator today, it actually made me think about why things frighten us in the first place.

That is such a great connection! Our sister show, Philosophy's Not Boring, has a fascinating episode called What is a Phobia?

Exactly. It is all about how fear actually evolved to protect us. And I bet a T-Rex would trigger every survival instinct we have. You should totally go and play that episode after this one.

Now, close your eyes and imagine standing in a steamy, swampy forest. Suddenly, the ground begins to rumble. Boom, boom, boom.

I think I would hide behind the biggest tree I could find.

It wouldn't help! Staring down at you is a creature 40 feet long, weighing nine tons, with jaws that pack a bite force of nearly 13,000 pounds.

13,000 pounds? That is heavier than an elephant.

Today, we are travelling back 66 million years to the late Cretaceous period to discover exactly why the Tyrannosaurus Rex was the undisputed king of the dinosaurs. To understand just how colossal the T-Rex was, picture a yellow school bus. Now give it legs, a massive tail, and a head the size of a bathtub.

A school bus? So if I stood next to it, I would only come up to its knees.

Exactly. A full-grown T-Rex stood about 12 feet tall at the hips, and it weighed around 18,000 pounds. That is the weight of two entire elephants squished together. Where did these giants actually live? Were they all over the world? Nope, they lived in a very specific place. 66 million years ago, North America was split in half by a giant shallow sea.

The T-Rex roamed the western half, an island continent called Laramidia.

Laramidia. So places like Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas?

Spot on! And that is exactly where a famous fossil hunter named Barnum Brown made history in 1902.

Barnum Brown?

Was he the first person to find a T-Rex? He was. He was exploring the Hell Creek Formation in Montana, a rugged landscape full of canyons and ancient rocks. Barnum was quite the character. He often searched for fossils wearing a heavy fur coat.

unknown Ha!

A fur coat in the desert. That sounds really sweaty.

Right? But underneath all that rock, he found a partial skeleton of a giant meat-eater. The bones were so massive and heavy, it took a team of horses and several years just to dig it out of the hillside.

Wow, when they finally got it to the museum, they must have been terrified by how big it was.

They were. In 1905, the president of the American Museum of Natural History named it Tyrannosaurus Rex, which literally translates to Tyrant Lizard King. And its crown jewel was its terrifying bite.

Okay, you said earlier that it had a bite force of 13,000 pounds. How strong is that compared to other animals?

Let's compare. When a human bites down on a crunchy carrot, we use about 160 pounds of force. A huge saltwater crocodile, which has the strongest bite today, bites with about 3,700 pounds.

So the T-Rex bite was more than three times stronger than a giant crocodile. It could literally bite a car in half.

Yes, and scientists know this because of the T-Rex's skull. It was five feet long, made of thick, heavy bones, and packed with huge jaw muscles. But the real stars were the teeth.

I heard they had teeth the size of bananas. Is that actually true?

It is! A T-Rex had around 60 teeth in its mouth. The part you could see was about the size of a banana, but including the root hidden in the jaw, the largest teeth were up to 12 inches long. A one-foot long tooth? That is the length of a ruler. Exactly. And they weren't smooth. The edges were serrated, like a steak knife, to slice right through meat.

But they were also thick and rounded, built for a process called osteophagy. Osteo means bone. Did they eat bones? They shattered them. Most predators have to eat around the bones of their prey. But the T-Rex had such strong teeth and jaws, it just crushed right through the bones to get to the nutritious marrow inside.

That is incredible. I bet scientists have found dinosaur bones with giant T-Rex bite marks right through them.

They have! They even found fossilized T-Rex poop called coprolites that were filled with pulverised bone fragments. They didn't leave any leftovers.

So they had the most powerful bite. But what about finding their prey? In movies, they say a T-Rex can't see you if you don't move.

That is one of the biggest dinosaur myths ever! If you stood perfectly still in front of a T-Rex, you would just be an easy snack. Wait, really? So they had good eyesight? Better than good. They had some of the best vision in animal history. Their eyes were the size of softballs and faced forward, giving them overlapping binocular vision.

Binocular vision? That means they could see in 3D, like we do, right? To judge exactly how far away something is.

Exactly. But scientists calculate that a T-Rex's vision was up to 13 times sharper than human eyesight. They could see an animal moving from 3.7 miles away.

Almost 4 miles away. So before I even knew the T-Rex was there, it would be looking right at me.

Oh, it gets worse. Even if you hid in a cave, it could smell you. When scientists scanned the brain cavities of T-Rex skulls, they found massive olfactory bulbs.

Olfactory bulbs are the parts of the brain that process smells, right? How big were they? Huge!

About the size of grapefruits! This meant the T-Rex had an incredibly powerful sense of smell, much like a modern bloodhound, allowing it to track scents from miles away.

So it could see for miles, smell for miles, and crush bones. That is the perfect predator.

It really was an evolutionary marvel. And they were also surprisingly smart. Their brain-to-body ratio was larger than most other giant meat-eating dinosaurs.

Okay, Mira, I have to ask about the one thing that isn't terrifying. Their tiny little arms. Why did a 40-foot monster have such funny little arms?

That is the most famous question. A T-Rex's arms were only about three feet long. For a nine-ton dinosaur, that looks ridiculous.

It couldn't even reach its own face to scratch its nose.

True, but don't underestimate them. Thick bones and huge muscle attachments show those tiny arms were super strong. Scientists estimate a T-Rex could curl about 400 pounds in each arm. 400 pounds? That is like lifting a huge motorcycle. Exactly. Here is another mind-blowing fact. How fast they grew. A baby T-Rex was born fuzzy and the size of a skinny turkey.

But during their teenage years, they went through a massive growth spurt. Like how fast? Between the ages of 14 and 18, a T-Rex gained about 5 pounds every single day. They literally ate their way into becoming giants. 5 pounds a day! But they didn't live super long, right? Right. The most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found is named Sue at the Field Museum in Chicago.

By looking at the growth rings in Sue's bones, scientists learned she lived to be about 28 years old. Alright, Finn, it is quiz time. Let's see how much you remember about the king of the dinosaurs.

Oh boy, I'm ready. Hit me with the T-Rex facts.

First question. How many pounds of force was in a T-Rex bite? Next one. How many serrated teeth did a T-Rex have in its mouth? Question three. What was the name of the fossil hunter who discovered the first T-Rex in 1902? Here's number four. How many miles away could a T-Rex see an animal moving? Last question.

During its teenage growth spurt, how many pounds did a T-Rex gain every single day? Great job, let's see how you did. The first answer is nearly 13,000 pounds of bite force. For question two, a T-Rex had 60 banana-sized teeth. The answer to question three is Barnum Brown. For number four, it could see prey from 3.7 miles away.

And the final answer is it gained £1 a day.

I still can't get over the fact that its teeth were 12 inches long. Imagine brushing those every night.

Haha, you would definitely need a massive toothbrush. The T-Rex really was the ultimate survivor of its time.

It totally was. If you learn something new about the King of the Dinosaurs today, please leave us a roaring five-star review. Just scroll down and tap the stars.

And make sure to follow this show, plus our sister shows, History and Philosophy's Not Boring, and Maths Is Not Boring, so you never miss an adventure.

And if you want to shout out on the show, or just want to tell us your favourite dinosaur, email us at hello at kidopoly.com.

See you next time on Science Is Not Boring. Bye, everyone.

What was the Tyrannosaurus Rex?

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