Tyrannosaurus: Not as big as you may think
Acro Rex
MemberCompsognathusJune 06, 2014Locked11961 Views31 RepliesSomething i've noticed, especially on this forum. Every one thinks Tyrannosaurus is ' the king' and that it wins in every fight it's ever in. Well, right now, i'm going to take an in depth look at this animal. Going to show you it's not as big and fearsome as you might have thought...
The biggest Tyrannosaurus ever discovered was Sue FMNH PR2081, one of the largest, most extensive and best-preserved specimens ever found, being somewhere between 70 - 80 percent complete. Estimates put "Sue" at around 12.3 meters TBL. Overestimations, especially recent ones put Ole' Sue at around 9 tons TBW.
From that study, we have this little gem of a picture..
As we can see, there is a lot of extra flesh that whoever engineered these figures, made it entirely too much. Makes the Tyrannosaurus look like a sausage casing rather then an apex predator.
now, we move onto the fragmentary giants every tyrannosaurus lover points to.
Let's start with the mysterious UCMP 137538.
What? that's it? well, yeah...It's a pedal phalanx ascribed to Tyrannosaurus because a basic morphilogical resemblance. Estimates for this toe bone range from 13-15 meters in length....
WHY?
Specimens of Tyrannosaurus have shown us time and again, individual variation within the skeleton is evident. To me, this isn't evidence of tyrannosaurus getting 14 or so meters. It's garbage at this point.
MOR 008?
that one skull that is "larger then that of sue"? well, i have some news for y'all. Juvenile animals tend to have larger heads then adults proportionally to their bodies.
C-Rex and F-Rex are indeterminate from what i've read up on..likely Carcharodontosaurs.
So there we have it, a quick debunking of some misconceptions and fabeled giants.
My estimates put Tyrannosaurus at 11-12 meters long and 5.5 tons at average.
Feel free to dispute any of this with me, i'll be happy to oblige.
