I know the ‘Facts Tier List’ is something that has been done to death in pop-culture. But I thought it would be fun to make a short list of the most obscure facts I could find about the king lizard, Tyrannosaurus Rex. If this is something you find interesting, I may make this a series where we cover less recognizable dinos!
1/3 |T-Rex wasn’t Always The Most Popular
Taking a look at the countless pictures, books, movies, and exhibits on the world of paleontology, it is self-evident that the Tyrannosaurus Rex is one of, if not the most popular dinosaur. Many would assume that this has always been the case, but what if I told you that wasn’t.
My older readers may recognize the name or shape of the Brontosaurus. A sauropod with a complicated history, this dinosaur was the symbol for Sinclair Oil and at one time was considered the face of the dinosaur world. The Brontosaurs will be the topic of a future post, so subscribe so you don’t miss out!
2/3 | Usable Arms
The T-Rex is often made fun of for it’s tiny arms. They were quite small in proportion to the rest of its body, measuring in at only 2-3 feet. The T-Rex’s head alone was 5 feet long. However, just because they were tiny, doesn’t mean they were useless. Their arms were incredibly capable despite the size and were able to support over 400 pounds in weight.
There is still speculation as to what purpose their arms served. Many believe they were used to help T-Rex lift itself off of the floor or for holding on to recently killed prey.
Although the T-Rex has earned the moniker: ‘King of the Dinosaurs’, that doesn’t mean that T-Rex was the largest Carnivore of them all. T-Rex was estimated to be about 40 feet long and weighed between 7 and 9 tons. The Giganotosaurus and the Spinosaurus both outclassed the king lizard, with the former weighing 9 tons and the latter weighing over 10 tons. Giganotosaurus barely beats out T-Rex in length, as it was recorded to be 43 feet long. But the Spinosaurus takes the cake at almost 60 feet long from head to tail! I may take a deeper look into the unique features of these 3 species…
I hope you found these facts interesting; I surely did! If there are any facts you would like to share, feel free to do so in the comments below.
In 1868, the hottest ticket in town was to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. Before that year about 30,000 people visited the museum annually. But in 1868, attendance more than doubled to 66,000. The next year it soared to 100,000. What was it that people stood in line for hours to see? The first complete dinosaur skeleton ever displayed to the public: Hadrosaurus. People stared in awe. It was three stories tall! Philadelphia had to build a bigger museum to have room for the crowds.
Hadrosaurus was found in New Jersey in 1858. And at that time, it was the most complete dinosaur skeleton that had ever been found in the whole world.
What do we know about it today? It was just an average duckbill dinosaur. It didn’t even have a crazy crest like some duckbill dinosaurs. Its head was flat.
It grew about 23-26 feet long and could have weighed 2-4 tons. Its back legs were much longer than its front legs. It could walk on just its hind legs or on all four legs. The front of its mouth was a beak, covered in keratin, just like your fingernails. This helped it nip off plants, which it ground up with its large teeth. It traveled in herds.
The original pose was upright. But we now think it probably stood like this, with the tail balancing the head:
When it was first displayed almost everyone was thrilled to see it – but that’s almost. A copy of Hadrosaurus was made and was supposed to go on display in 1871 in New York City. But it never did. One of the most powerful men in New York in that day, William Tweed, known as Boss Tweed, ordered members of his gang to destroy the skeleton. No one knows why. They tore it apart and tossed the pieces of it into a nearby lake.
Today Hadrosaurus doesn’t cause any controversy. People know it as just an average dinosaur. But New Jersey is proud that it is its state dinosaur, and people still flock to see it.
Can you draw a duckbill dinosaur head with a crazy crest? Please put one in the comment section or message me on Facebook at Janet Riehecky
To learn more about dinosaurs, please visit here once a week. Please also visit my web site: www.janetriehecky.com
It’s almost impossible to declare that one dinosaur was the biggest of them all. Do you mean longest, heaviest, or tallest? Also, it’s very unlikely that paleontologists have actually found the biggest specimen of a dinosaur type. Millions and millions of dinosaurs once lived on Earth, and we’ve found only a small percent of them. We do know that all of the biggest dinosaurs are plant eaters. They come from the group of dinosaurs called sauropods, the long-necked dinosaurs – and most of the very biggest ones have been found in Argentina.
So, how do paleontologists figure out how long or tall a dinosaur was? They need to look at the spine. Put your fingers on the back of your neck. The little bones you feel there that are part of your spine are called vertebrae. When a dinosaur skeleton is found, usually many of the vertebrae are missing. When there is a gap, paleontologists have to guess how many are missing. One way they do this is by comparing the bones they have to other, similar dinosaurs. If a similar dinosaur had, say, 80 vertebrae in its tail, paleontologists would assume that a closely related dinosaur had 80, too. But that might not be true. And it’s hard to know how big those missing vertebrae would be. Scientists have to make the best estimate they can, but they often don’t agree with one another. However, they have provided some great contenders for biggest dinosaur!
This might be Barosaurus (BARE-uh-sore-us). It was discovered in 1889 in South Dakota. Its name means slow, heavy lizard, and it must have been. Scientists think it was probably 82-89 feet long. That’s long, but that’s not what put it in contention for longest. Scientists have found a huge vertebra that they think belonged to Barosaurus. From the size of it, the creature it came from was likely about 157 feet long! That’s almost as long as three eighteen-wheeler trucks set end to end.
Another contender is Argentinosaurus (are-juhn-tee-nuh-SORE-us). Scientists have only found 13 of its bones: a few ribs, some vertebrae, and a five-foot-long femur (thigh bone). This isn’t much to try to figure out how big this dinosaur was, but the sizes of those bones have led scientists to estimate that Argentinosaurus was between 75 and 100 feet long. If that top limit is right, Argentinosaurus is definitely among the very biggest dinosaurs.
Argentinosaurus is also a contender for the heaviest dinosaur, but because estimates of its weight are based on so few bones, some scientists discount it. However, paleontologists have unearthed more than 200 bones of Patagotitan (PAT-ah-go-TIE-ton). These bones were found in Argentina in 2012 and cause scientists to estimate that it weighed about 76 tons. The largest land animal today is the African elephant. Its top weight is seven tons. That means that Patagotitan weighed nearly as much as 11 elephants. And some scientists think at its biggest it weighed as much as 14 elephants.
Dreadnoughtus (dred-NOHR-tus) is a definite contender in weight. Its name means fearing nothing. And it’s hard to imagine any creature that it would have to be afraid of. It was discovered in Argentina in 2005. Scientists have recovered almost half of its bones, so they are able to be fairly accurate in their estimates. They place its weight between 54 and 65 tons (though some scientists say that’s too high). It was also about 85 feet long and as tall as a two-story building.
Two stories, however, is not a contender for height. The tallest dinosaurs reached close to the height of a six-story building, though again, it’s tricky to know for sure. Scientists don’t agree on how high up long-necked dinosaurs could lift their heads. Sauroposeidon (Sore-uh-ps-SY-don) is certainly one of the tallest. It was found in Oklahoma in 1994 and named for the Greek god Poseidon. Poseidon could cause earthquakes, and it probably felt like this dinosaur could do that, too – just by walking. It probably stood just over 55 feet tall, which is, as it says above, almost the height of a six-story building.
Patagotitan shows up again here. Depending on how it carried its long neck, it might have been as tall as a seven-story building. If it carried its head and neck low to the ground, straight out from its body, it’s a contender for longest dinosaur at 122-130 feet. The picture at the right shows Patagotitan at the Field Museum in Chicago
Scientist do not agree which one was the biggest dinosaur. Other lists would include such dinosaurs as Mamenchisaurus (mah-MUN-chi-SORE-us), a creature whose neck was longer than the rest of its body, or Giraffatitan (ji-RAF-ah-TIE-tan), which had the same general build as a gigantic giraffe. We may never know which dinosaur was the biggest. But we can all agree that they were awesome!
Which dinosaur do you vote for as biggest? Do you know a big dinosaur that isn’t in this list? Please leave your answers in the comment section.
Hope everyone is adjusting to the fall nicely! Here are a few dinosaur jokes that made me chuckle. Feel free to post your own jokes in the comments down below.
Not very long ago paleontologists were sure of at least one thing about dinosaurs: nobody would ever know what color they were – unless somebody invented a time machine. Artists had to make up the colors because there were only bones to work with. And you can’t tell the color of anything’s skin from looking at its bones. Even the discovery of several dinosaur “mummies” didn’t help [See my post on dino mummies here]. Though some of these had preserved dinosaur skin, the skin had taken on the color of the minerals that seeped into it to fossilize it. But modern technology has changed this. There are now a couple of ways to determine what color certain dinosaurs were.
The first is a rare case. In 2011 an armored dinosaur called Borealopelta (BOH-ree-AH-low-PEL-tuh) was discovered. Its skin was so well preserved that scientists were able to use a mass spectrometer to discover its color. How does that work? A mass spectrometer is able to tell the chemical substances something is made of, and when you know the exact chemical substances, and where they are, you know what color it is. In the case of Borealopelta, scientists determined the dinosaur was dark reddish brown on the back and neck and lighter reddish brown on the belly and lower parts.
But finding such well-preserved skin is rare. However, scientists have found another way to determine color. Using an electron microscope they found tiny structures that were smaller than cells. At first these were dismissed as bacteria, but they were, in fact, melanosomes (muh-LAN-uh-sohmz), irregular blobs that contain color pigments. Melanosomes can be found in skin, hair, scales or feathers. The size, shape, thickness, and dispersal of melanosomes found in a fossilized feather can be compared to those found in modern birds to determine a color. Then the trick is finding dinosaur fossils that contain preserved skin, hair, scales, or feathers. So far, feathers have been the main structure to reveal dinosaur color through melanosomes.
In 2009 scientists found a feathered dinosaur, which they named Anchiornis (ANG-kee-OR-niss). It lived during the late Jurassic Period. The fossil included some preserved feathers, which were examined under an electron microscope. Analysis of the melanosomes indicated this was a black-and-white dinosaur with a patch of red on the back of its head.
Other dinosaurs have been colorized by this same process. A recent discovery in China, Caihong (KAY-hong), was found with remains of actual feathers. When these were analyzed, they showed that most of the dinosaur was iridescent black, a glossy black that subtly changed its hue when looked at from different angles. The head, chest, and the base of the tail contained melanosomes that produce bright iridescent colors in modern birds. These colors could not be specifically identified, but artists have guessed at what they might be.
Other dinosaurs that have been colorized include Sinosauropteryx (SIEN-oh-soh-ROP-tuh-riks) – which lived during the early Cretaceous Period and had bright orangish feathers with a lighter belly and a striped tail.
And they include Microraptor – a small meat-eating dinosaur that also lived during the early Cretaceous Period and had feathers that gleamed an iridescent blue/black, like ravens or starlings.
As stated earlier, melanosomes can also be found in scales. Psittacosaurus (SIT-a-ko-SOR-us) is an early Cretaceous dinosaur distantly related to Triceratops. It does not have feathers, but one of the skeletons found had preserved scales that contained melanosomes. They revealed the dinosaur was dark brown on its back and a paler brown on its underside with its hind legs being striped on the inside and spotted on the outside.
Melanosomes are not the answer to the color of every dinosaur. There has to be preserved soft tissue to have melanosomes, and most fossils lack that. Additionally, some colors, such as blues and yellows, are not made by melanosomes. Still, even knowing the colors of a few dinosaurs is something most scientists once thought would never happen.
What color do you think Tyrannosaurus rex was? Put your guesses in the comment section.
Happy Tuesday Friends! Over the last few weeks we have covered a lot of Dino-related info, from the T-Rex to the Pachycephalosaurus. I appreciate the interest you all have shown in the world of dinosaurs!
Many of you have have left thought provoking and intriguing comments and I have enjoyed reading and responding to all of them. Because of this, I thought we should have an experiment this week.
For the next week, feel free to ask me about anything, or respond to other threads or messages. The hope is that we can have fun and share interesting facts about dinosaurs!
If this goes well, maybe we have more group discussions like this in the future 🙂
Thank you all for taking the time to read my little blog. Enjoy the rest of your week and don’t forget to comment below!
Triassic Period: Coelophysis– I have a lifesize figure of one in my living room.
Jurassic Period: Apatosaurus — I have 5′ 7″ femur from one in my living room, a gift from my husband
Cretaceous Period: Triceratops — All I have from it is a horn from its brow, but I’ve always like it best.
If you were being hunted by a dinosaur (pick any meat eater) how would you use your knowledge of dinosaurs to evade the predator and possibly even knock it in the noggin?
If you could have a dinosaur as a pet, which one would you choose and why?
Does it bother you when someone accuses another person of being out of date and says, “You are such a dinosaur”? Is that kind of a slam on dinosaurs?
You needn’t reply to all my questions. Pick the one(s) you like.
Thanks for your questions!
To avoid T-rex, the last thing you want to do is stand still. If you’re a good runner, you can out-distance it. It takes very large steps, but it was probably too heavy to run for an extended period of time.
I would like a Triceratops. They’ve always been my favorite.
Telling someone they’re a dinosaur is actually a compliment and not just because they’re awesome. They managed to live on Earth for 120 million years — not bad survival skills. People wouldn’t have managed any better in the face of that asteroid.
One of the reasons I like dinosaurs so much is that some of them are just plain weird. And, for me, one of the weirdest is Pachycephalosaurus
(pa-KEE-seh·fuh·luh-SORE-us).
Pachycephalosaurus lived in the late Cretaceous Period, 72 – 66 million years ago, in what is now the western United States and Canada. This was the same time and place that Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops lived. Pachycephalosaurus probably walked on two legs with its tail stretched out behind it and its head leaning forward to balance it. It was about 15 feet long, and weighed almost 1000 pounds. None of that makes it unusual. But when people take a closer look at this dinosaur, it definitely stands out.
Pachycephalosaurus means “thick-headed lizard.” It is a bizarre creature for several reasons. First, the name is weird, even for a dinosaur, because it has so many syllables. If you ever want to impress someone, just rattle off that name without any pauses.
Second, it had nine to ten inches of solid bone in a dome on top of its skull, twenty times thicker than the skulls of most other dinosaurs. That’s a huge difference!
Scientists don’t know for sure why this dinosaur had such a thick skull, but some of them think Pachycephalosaurus liked to butt its head into things, especially other dinosaurs. Head-butting is used by modern animals, such as bighorn sheep or mountain goats, to establish dominance.
The winner controls a territory and impresses the females. The thick skull of Pachycephalosaurus might have protected its brain when it collided with another dinosaur. Scars on the domes of some skulls also support this idea.
Photo via <a href=” ttps://www.goodfreephotos .com/”>Good Free Photos</a>
But some scientists doubt head-butting was possible, saying the shape of its neck makes it unlikely its spine could withstand a head-on collision. And, the top of its head is rounded, so not much surface would collide with the other dinosaur. These scientists think that maybe Pachycephalosaurus used glancing blows to the side while fighting others to see who would control a territory. It also might be that Pachycephalosaurus having a big head just helped males to attract females. One thing scientists do agree on is that its thick skull wouldn’t have been much good as defense if it were attacked by Tyrannosaurus because the rest of its body had no defenses.
However, it wasn’t just the thickness of the skull that made this dinosaur weird. Across the back of the dome and on its snout, it had large circular bumps (see skull above). Bumps aren’t all that weird, but scientists think most of the bumps started out as spikes, flattening as the dinosaur grew older. They have found skulls of smaller dome-headed dinosaurs that were thought to be different species of dinosaurs, such as one called Dracorex hogwartsia, which means “the Dragon King of Hogwarts” (named for Harry Potter’s school). They are now thought to be juvenile pachycephalosaurs. It seems odd that spikes would flatten into bumps as the dinosaur grew up, as spikes seem more useful than bumps, but, as I said, this is a weird dinosaur.
Another strange thing was its teeth. In the back of its mouth, it had wide, leaf-shaped teeth, similar to those found in many plant-eating dinosaurs. According to paleontologist, Philip Currie, “We have always been somewhat mystified by what these animals were eating, but I think the teeth at the back of the jaws clearly show it’s an herbivore.” But in 2018, paleontologists reported finding a more complete jaw, and they couldn’t believe what it showed. In the front of its mouth, it had sharp, triangular teeth, that were more like a carnivore.
Paleontologist, Steve Brusatte, said, “It had the combination of a beak with these very sharp, steak knife-like serrated teeth … They must have been eating some kind of meat. Why else would you have steak knives at the front of your mouth?” This combination is very unusual. Scientists have suggested that this means it might be an omnivore, eating both plants and meat. The meat would have been small animals, such as lizards, frogs, or even small mammals; the plants would have been ferns, leaves, and conifer needles.
All in all, Pachycephalosaurus certainly qualifies as a strange and weird dinosaur. It’s one of my favorites, and I hope it is now one of yours.
On a summer day in 2006, a fossil hunter named Clayton Phipps made a discovery that ranks among the most spectacular dinosaur finds ever. While exploring the rocky terrain of the Montana hills, he spotted a bit of bone weathering out of the rock. It turned out to be part of the pelvis of a Triceratops. After digging on and off for months, he discovered that it might be a complete skeleton of a 28-foot-long Triceratops.
That’s rare, but that’s not all he found. With it, he unearthed the only 100% complete skeleton of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex that has ever been found. It is 22 feet long, with all the bones are articulated – in their natural positions next to each other – which is very rare. And on top of that, they look like they were locked in battle when they died! This is a spectacular discovery! Only one other pair of apparently fighting dinosaurs – a Velociraptor and Protoceratops – has ever been found.
Did the two dinosaurs die fighting each other? Scientists need more time before they can say for sure. Because there was a long court battle over who owned these bones, they are only just now getting to study them. They know that some of the Tyrannosaurus’ teeth are broken, and that some tyrannosaur teeth are in the Triceratops’ bones and body cavity, but they don’t know yet if those teeth belonged to this Tyrannosaurus. If they do, they could have gotten there in a fight, or it could be that the Tyrannosaurus found a dead Triceratops and took a bite. The Tyrannosaurus’ skull is cracked, and one finger is broken. But if the two creatures were killed by a mudslide, the impact of the mud and the debris it carried might have caused those injuries.
However, it is also reasonable to think that those injuries happened in a fight. Scientists have never found skin impressions from a Triceratops frill – until now. There are also skin impressions on the Tyrannosaurus’ feet And they think some of the soft tissue inside the dinosaurs has been preserved, such as the stomachs. It might be possible to find out the last meal of each of these dinosaurs – before they ran into each other!
Scientists are excited about the chance to study these unique dinosaurs. And very soon, the public will get to see them, too. These “Dueling Dinosaurs,” as they have been nicknamed, will be on show for the public at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, NC, beginning in 2024. I can’t wait to go!
Do you think they died fighting each other? Let me know in the comment section.
In the first movie of the Jurassic Park series, the second scariest dinosaur was Velociraptor. (Scariest? T-rex, of course.) The movie showed a creature that was about six feet tall, with a huge foot claw that it held upright. Its body was thick, like a tyrannosaur, it was highly intelligent, and it hunted in a pack during the day. Given that most of us like watching movies with scary creatures, a star was born. Overnight Velociraptor became famous.
But like many movies, Jurassic Park got it wrong. In fact, pretty much all of it was wrong. To start with, Velociraptor was little: only about three feet tall (one meter) measured at the hip. From the tip of its nose to the end of its tail, it measured about six feet (2 meters), but almost half of that length was its long, stiff tail. When Velociraptor was fully grown, it weighed only about 33 pounds (15 kg). A Great Dane, which is about the same height, can weigh up to 140 pounds (64 kg.).
Why is the height of a dinosaur measured at its hip?(Click Me)
Dinosaurs that walked on two legs didn’t stand upright. They leaned forward (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot) and used their tail to balance their head. This means that the head wouldn’t always be at the same height. It could go up and down. But the legs of dinosaurs are directly under their bodies, so the measurement of height at the hip would always be the same.
The movie showed Velociraptor covered with scales, but scientists have found marks on the arm and tail bones of this dinosaur that show feathers were attached there. In fact, it’s likely their whole bodies were covered with feathers. However, though their arms may have looked like wings, Velociraptors weren’t capable of flight. Their arms were too short, and their bodies were too long. Instead, they walked on two legs.
If you’re now picturing a fluffy, cute, little dinosaur, think again. It would not make a good pet. It may have been only about the size of a Great Dane, but it was a fierce hunter. Its upright, sickle (curved in an arc) claw was about 2½ inches (6.5 cm.) long, measured around the outer edge. That’s not very big compared to that claw in the movies, but an eagle’s talons are only two inches long, and think of the damage it can do with those!
The movie did get it right that Velociraptor was a carnivore, a meat eater. It had a mouth full of very sharp, serrated (having a jagged edge , like a steak knife) teeth. Its head was flat with large eyes that enabled it to see very clearly. It also had great senses of smell and hearing. The three claws on each hand were very sharp. Each foot had sharp claws, too, including that famous sickle claw. This claw was held up off the ground, which kept it very sharp. Claws that scrape along the ground become dull.
The movie showed a highly intelligent, coordinated attack by a pack of Velociraptors in the daytime. However, none of that is true. First, Velociraptor was not that smart. Its brain was large compared to its body, but it’s a small body and a small brain. It was about as smart as a bird of prey, such as a hawk. Many modern mammals could have outthought it.
Next, it probably wasn’t a pack hunter. Strangely, it is their teeth that make some scientists think this. Scientists have analyzed the teeth of young Velociraptors and compared them to adult Velociraptors. They’ve found that the chemicals in each set of teeth are different. This is important information because in pack animals the chemical makeup of the teeth is usually the same because old and young share the same food.
Young animals which are not taken care of by their parents or the pack usually have different chemicals in their teeth than adults because they eat different food. They would eat lizards and insects, small creatures that a little dinosaur could catch. As an adult they’d eat bigger things. Young animals that have not been taken care of by their parents also tend not to hang out with others of their kind. And, dinosaurs are more closely related to reptiles and birds which generally do not hunt in packs. So, at least for right now, these facts have caused scientists to lean toward the theory that Velociraptor did not hunt in packs.
But whichever way it goes, it is certain that Velociraptor’s slim body and long legs made it a fast runner. It could run as fast as a roadrunner, maybe as fast as 25 mph (40 kph). Small prey, with their short legs, didn’t stand a chance of outrunning it. Their only chance of escaping lay in having a big head start because Velociraptor’s leg muscles weren’t strong enough to run really fast over a long distance.
Sometimes Velociraptor is shown in books and movies using its sickle claw to rip open its prey, but that isn’t likely. The claw could break through the skin of a dinosaur, but tests show it wasn’t strong enough or long enough to kill another animal. Most likely that claw was used to hold onto its prey while Velociraptor used its other claws and its teeth to kill. Hawks and various other birds of prey use their talons in this way.
Velociraptors also probably hunted at night, not in the day as in Jurassic Park. Scientists have noted that all birds and many reptiles alive today have a ring of bone around the eye. In those animals that hunt at night, the opening in the ring is large, to let in as much light as possible. Those that hunt in the day have a much smaller opening. Velociraptor has a large opening in its ring of bone. This makes it almost certain that it hunted at night. And that makes sense as the area Velociraptor lived in was mostly desert. It would want to hunt at night when it would be cooler. Its body wouldn’t overheat, and small creatures would be more likely to come out.
All in all, Velociraptor is not much like the creature in the movie that made it famous, but the real Velociraptor was still a deadly predator.
Which do you like better? The real Velociraptor or the one in the movie? Please let me know in the comments below.
Maxwell, W. Desmond, and John H. Ostrom. “Taphonomy and Paleobiological Implications of Tenontosaurus-Deinonychus Associations.” Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol. 15, no. 4, [Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Taylor & Francis, Ltd.], 1995, pp. 707–12, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4523664.
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