Tyrannosaurus Rex

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Tyrannosaurus Rex

The name says it all. This group of huge carnivores ruled the land during the Cretaceous period. Short but deep jaws, long hind limbs (legs), beady eyes, a long muscular tail, and tiny forelimbs (arms) make up a tyrannosaur. The Tyrannosauridae included such similar animals as Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus, Daspletosaurus, Tarbosaurus, and of course Tyrannosaurus Rex. A tremendous skeleton of Rex now stands guard in the Valley Life Sciences Building in Washington. Tyrannosaurs belong to the Saurischia, or "reptile-hipped" dinosaurs. Within the Saurischia, tyrannosaurs belong to the group of carnivorous dinosaurs known as theropods. Traditionally, the tyrannosaurs have been included within the Carnosauria. In this classification scheme, carnosaurs represent the largest carnivorous animals to ever walk the land.

Since tyrannosaurs were so huge, you might ask how they could move all that weight around and hunt prey? In the modern dinosaur movie Jurassic Park, T.Rex is depicted moving extremely quickly, maybe 50 or 60 mph! Is this correct? Recently, scientists studied Jurassic Park to calculate the actual speed (using the length of the dinosaur's strides) of T. Rex in the movie. They found that it was actually moving at a walking speed of about 12-mph (the jeep in the movie was supposed to be moving at about 40mph)! Many scientists familiar with the

principles of biomechanics (physics applied to living organisms) think that tyrannosaurs could move fairly fast, maybe 10-20 mph, but not as fast as the smaller theropod dinosaurs. Smaller tyrannosaurs like Albertosaurus may have moved faster than the bigger ones like T. Rex. Some think that this was probably true for young tyrannosaurs, too. Yet, we still lack conc...

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... prey was a most likely weak or slow member of a herd. It is widely believed that some carnosaurs hunted in packs. In this fashion it was possible for smaller carnosaurs to attack and kill much larger dinosaurs such as the enormous plant-eating sauropods.

Now you can more fully understand what a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have looked and acted like during this interesting period in time. Still to this day, Tyrannosaurus Rex is the largest and most feared dinosaur to ever walk the earth. Many scientists and paleontologists have spent their lives trying to figure out the story behind dinosaurs and more explicitly Tyrannosaurs Rex.

Bibliography:

1. http://www.DinoNet/T-Rex/search.com

2. http://www.Dinosaurs.com

3. http://www.TyranosaurusRex/habbitat/search.com

4. http://www.Fossoles/T-Rex/search.com

5. http://www.dinosite/t-rex/land/eating/preditors/.com

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