Small Length Increase Means Big Weight Gain For T.rex?

Rex Fan 684

MemberCompsognathusJune 21, 20143225 Views25 Replies

So lately I noticed the debate of what the biggest theropods were has been brought back up.

Tangent time...

To be honest I thought we were past that point and that we all knew how everyone felt and that we weren't gonna try and convince each other otherwise, but I guess not.

Anyways, with that out of the way, I made an interesting observation(I think it's interesting at least) about T.rex weight. So the holotype specimen(on display at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History) is 39 ft long and weighs an estimated 7.3 tons. Big animal right? Well "Sue"(Chicago Field Museum) is about 40-42 ft long(depends who you ask, so we'll meet in the middle and say 41 ft), yet the most commonly accepted weight for "her" is 9.1 tons. So despite only a length increase of 2 ft or so, T.rex can gain nearly 2 tons in weight! That means those fragmentary specimens that are bigger than "Sue" like UCMP 118742, C.Rex, F.Rex who are estimated to be some 43-46 ft long could reach unprecedented weights! Now, this is just an observation, but still very interesting if you ask me.

Holotype

"Sue"

"Men like me don't start the wars. We just die in them. We've always died in them, and we always will. We don't expect any praise for it, no parades. No one knows our names." ―Alpha-98

Carnosaur
Group: Member
Rank: Compsognathus
View Profile

June 21, 2014

Geographical variation in a species plays a large role too, so in my mind a 9 ton Tyrannosaurus isn't out of the question. We have what? 30 individuals? Sue just happens to be the largest, but there are a few that are almost her size...and there's probably an even larger one waiting to be unearthed.

Nature doesn't deceive us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

Lord Vader
Group: Member
Rank: Tyrannosaurus Rex
View Profile

June 21, 2014

Probably. Closer to 40 I'm not mistaken, and yeah, the thing was around for two or three million years before it was taken out by an apocalypse.

Jack of all trades. Master of none

Rex Fan 684
Group: Member
Rank: Compsognathus
View Profile

June 22, 2014

The point of this post was to show there could be big weight variations in T.rex, even if the length difference was minimal.

I look at paleontology this way. We can't just jump to conclusions. We can't give a T.rex an exact weight or Troodon an exact IQ. It's like a trial at a court. A jury may be presented with someone convicted of murder, but 90 percent of the evidence points to it being someone else. This person's on trial only because of one or two similarities. The jury can't make a sound ruling based on such circumstantial and fragmentary evidence. Well, we are the jury and paleontology is on trial. Can we really draw such specific conclusions when we don't have all the facts? With absolutly no pun intended(well, some), the jury is still out.

"Men like me don't start the wars. We just die in them. We've always died in them, and we always will. We don't expect any praise for it, no parades. No one knows our names." ―Alpha-98

Lord Vader
Group: Member
Rank: Tyrannosaurus Rex
View Profile

June 22, 2014

Well said Rex Fan. There are many variables to pretty much everything in Paleontology.

Jack of all trades. Master of none

Rex Fan 684
Group: Member
Rank: Compsognathus
View Profile

June 22, 2014

Thank ya, thank ya very much.

"Men like me don't start the wars. We just die in them. We've always died in them, and we always will. We don't expect any praise for it, no parades. No one knows our names." ―Alpha-98

Small Length Increase Means Big Weight Gain For T.rex?

Rex Fan 684

Join the discussion!

Sign In to contribute!