Latin name: Tyrannosaurus Rex

Dinosaur length: total length 15 meters, height about 6 meters.

Dinosaur weight: 6.5-7 tons

Dinosaur food: meat (some studies show that it may be a scavenger)

Survival age: 65-70 million years ago, late Cretaceous.

Location: Montana, USA

The key to recognition: the forelimbs are short and the hands have two fingers.

Dinosaur species: sauropods and theropods.

origin

Tyrannosaurusrex's English name means "cruel lizard king" Barnumbrown discovered the first Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil in Montana (USA) on 1908.

brief introduction

Tyrannosaurus rex has a big head. Tyrannosaurus rex has short forelimbs and two fingers in each hand; The hind legs are big and powerful, and each foot has three toes. Every finger and toe has claws. Tyrannosaurus rex has a thin, hard tail. It has 60 teeth, each of which is 9 inches long and very sharp. When a tooth falls out, a new tooth will grow out. Tyrannosaurus rex walked on two legs. It can run very fast, 30 miles an hour. It has good sight and smell. Tyrannosaurus rex has a big head. It is a clever dinosaur. It lives alone, sometimes with another Tyrannosaurus Rex. We don't know whether they take care of their children.

Tyrannosaurus rex may be one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs on earth since records began. It is the latest carnivore. It has sixty sharp teeth with serrated edges, some of which are as long as18cm. It has huge upper and lower jaws; The head alone is 1.3 meters long, and it may be able to eat a whole person-if there were humans around at that time. Tyrannosaurus rex stood up two stories high and could swallow a cow in one bite. Strangely, Tyrannosaurus Rex's front feet are very short, which is not much different from human arms. So some scientists think that Tyrannosaurus rex can't prey, but can only eat dead bodies. Tyrannosaurus rex is a giant, and its whole body seems to be designed to attack other dinosaurs; Long and narrow head, muscular cheeks, short and thick neck and strong body. The hind legs are stout and the tail is not too long. It can be straightened backward to balance its body, with a wide mouth and sharp teeth, about 15cm long ... only its forelimbs are disproportionately small, with only two weak fingers. Although it was the overlord of the dinosaur world, it failed to escape the catastrophe 65 million years ago. Some people once thought that Tyrannosaurus rex was a heavy and slow animal, but the latest research thinks that Tyrannosaurus rex can run at a speed of more than 40 kilometers per hour. If so, I'm afraid no prey can escape its pursuit. Later, a hadrosaur fossil was found, and there were teeth marks of Tyrannosaurus rex on the tailbone! Obviously, it not only managed to escape, but also lived for a while.

In the following introduction, you may wonder why we don't use the full name of this animal. Take Tyrannosaurus Rex as an example. Although many people know it is Tyrannosaurus Rex, we call it Tyrannosaurus Rex. We do this for two reasons. First, for some animals in a series, there is enough evidence to identify their genera, but it is impossible to identify the species in their genera. Secondly, it will make the names less confusing. Although everyone is familiar with the name tyrannosaurusrex, it is not appropriate to give all animals full names.

The fossil record hardly provides any evidence about the courtship of Tyrannosaurus Rex, so we can only imagine its courtship picture according to the behavior of similar animals today. Tyrannosaurus Rex is a large carnivore, bigger than any of its prey. So it can knock down its prey alone, and it is likely to live alone. Moving with other Tyrannosaurus Rex is unfavorable, because it will reduce the number of prey. We can also find similar phenomena in today's large carnivores such as bears and cheetahs. On the other hand, although male dinosaurs wandered around looking for mates, female dinosaurs had definite fields.

The next question is, how do stray male dinosaurs attract female dinosaurs? Male Tyrannosaurus Rex used food to pursue female Tyrannosaurus Rex. In the courtship process of animals, these gifts as food, or "love chips", are very important. This is sometimes caused when female dinosaurs are about to nest and hatch eggs. She needs to be full to keep her eggs in the best condition. Male dinosaurs can also prove that they are good at getting food. There is an incidental factor in this example: the female Tyrannosaurus Rex is bigger than the male Tyrannosaurus Rex, so the male Tyrannosaurus Rex is willing to make the female Tyrannosaurus Rex full and happy because he avoids being eaten by the female Tyrannosaurus Rex as food.

The actual food provided by male Tyrannosaurus Rex is the body of Triceratops. Because Triceratops was a common herbivorous dinosaur at that time, people were always willing to assume that Tyrannosaurus Rex used them as food. Thanks to some clever research, this is no longer a hypothesis. We have confirmed that Triceratops is the food of Tyrannosaurus Rex. Dr Greg Erickson, from the Mount Loki Museum in Montana, found that the hip bone of Triceratops was covered with tooth marks. Obviously, these large carnivores feed on Triceratops. In order to find out what kind of carnivore it is, Dr. Eriksson filled one of the deep bite marks with tooth putty, and the model obtained was obviously the same as that of Tyrannosaurus Rex's teeth. This result can even show how they actually eat. They accidentally peeled off the meat from the bone, but bit through the meat and bone hard and then tore off large pieces of meat.

In scientists' imagination, mating behavior will last around the body for a period of time. Komodo dragons like to mate around food. But in the end, the female dinosaur will fiercely force the male dinosaur to leave. The struggle between individuals is an obvious feature of Tyrannosaurus Rex. They have more or less terrible wounds and bite marks on their skulls and bones. And we know that in many cases, this is not caused by their bodies being stirred up after death. We have evidence of healing (such as new bones), which proves that the wound was caused when the animal was still alive.

In fact, many of these wounds are teeth marks on the head, which also shows another key element of Tyrannosaurus Rex's behavior. Their heads are their main weapons. If we compare the body shape of Tyrannosaurus rex with other carnivorous dinosaurs, it is obvious that Tyrannosaurus rex has much shorter arms, much bigger teeth and stronger jaws than other dinosaurs. Because Tyrannosaurus Rex's arms are so short, when they bite other animals, their arms can only be used as claws. Whether Tyrannosaurus Rex is really an active carnivore is controversial among paleontologists. Jack Holm, a famous paleontologist, objected to this. He thinks Tyrannosaurus Rex is just an animal that eats carrion. We see that many opinions have been put forward here. Tyrannosaurus rex's condition is not just a carrion-eating animal. However, like many carnivores nowadays, they sometimes eat carrion.

Among solitary carnivores like bears, cheetahs and leopards, mothers take care of their cubs. But will Tyrannosaurus Rex take care of their cubs? There is evidence that some dinosaurs did take care of their offspring, but for Tyrannosaurus rex, we can only speculate. Today, their close relatives are predatory birds and crocodiles, and these animals will take care of their offspring to some extent. Unlike mammals who took care of their young for a long time, dinosaurs only took care of their young in infancy. For carnivorous birds like owls, there is a lot of competition between young birds: brothers will kill each other, or parents will prefer the strongest young birds. We extend this behavior to Tyrannosaurus Rex.