Contrary to popular belief, the T. rex did not live during the Jurassic period. It lived millions of years later, during the late Cretaceous period, roughly 90 to 66 million years ago.
Tyrannosaurus is Greek for "tyrant lizard," and rex means "king" in Latin.
A study in 2012 by Karl Bates and Peter Falkingham found that Tyrannosaurus had the most powerful bite of any terrestrial animal that has ever lived. In fact, the bone-shattering bite of a T. rex could have crushed a car, delivering up to six tons (12,000 lbs) of pressure to its hapless victims.
Tyrannosaurus lived throughout Laramidia, an island continent that existed during the Late Cretaceous period when the Western Interior Seaway split the continent of North America in two. The seaway eventually shrank, split across the Dakotas, and retreated towards the Gulf of Mexico and the Hudson Bay. Laramidia and Appalachia then joined to unite the North American continent.
By applying modified perimetry to facial reconstructions, scientists estimate that Tyrannosaurus had 13 times the visual acuity of a human and even surpassed the visual acuity of an eagle. They also had very large olfactory bulbs and olfactory nerves relative to their brain size, suggesting a heightened sense of smell similar to modern vultures, which can detect carcasses by scent alone across great distances. Somewhat unusually among theropods, T. rex had a very long cochlea as well, suggesting a heightened sense of hearing, which was probably strongest in the low-frequency range.
Standing up to 15 meters high and weighing more than 5 tons, Tyrannosaurus Rex was massive--but his arms were only about 1 meter (3 feet) long, and some scholars have labelled them as vestigial. The bones show large areas for muscle attachment, however, indicating considerable strength.
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