Ever since the hypothesis that tyrannosaurs were feathered creatures appeared in the scientific community, most ordinary people have gotten used to ridiculing any claims that are associated with new research in the field of paleontology. The reason for this denial is simple - few people like it when the image of a giant lizard with luxurious scales and powerful fangs that has formed in the head since childhood is trying to radically change. A more accurate version of what tyrannosaurs looked like may turn out to be much less formidable and cool than we are used to seeing on TV screens, although arguing with scientific arguments is still pointless.
However, if you study the latest discoveries more closely, you will not be disappointed, but on the contrary - delight and awe. Tyrannosaurs were indeed terrifying animals, and even the monsters from Jurassic Park are forced to retreat before what you learn right now.
It was impossible to know about the appearance of the T-Rex in advance by the echoing sounds of his steps
Some of the most dramatic scenes in films about revived dinosaurs are usually associated with the approach of the king of all lizards, and his unfortunate victims are always aware of this in advance by the sound of the steps of a bloodthirsty creature and the trembling of the earth. However, in real life, the tee-rex's approach was not anticipated by the shuddering of the soil.
The famous American paleontologist Robert Bakker has in many ways changed our understanding of how these ancient creatures looked and behaved. So in the case of tyrannosaurs, the scientist stated that these giants had fairly quiet steps due to their soft feet. Prehistoric predators did not stomp at all, they rather walked gently and carefully. Becker compares their manner of movement with modern African elephants, which, despite their size, often end up in the middle of the night in the middle of the tent camps completely suddenly and just as quietly and quietly disappear. In the morning, travelers and explorers learn that these majestic creatures passed by their tents, only in the footsteps of elephants. That's how quiet they go!
In addition, this assumption makes sense - tyrannosaurs were carnivores. If a giant lizard wanted to hunt successfully, he didn't need to make noise at all. On the contrary, the victim should not have learned about the approach of a predator too early, so as not to have time to get scared and hide. T-Rex literally had to sneak, and this theory fits very harmoniously into our next point.
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Tyrannosaurs could be eerily quiet
When thinking about formidable dinosaurs, we often think of the roars that these creatures publish in famous horror films. However, in real life, they hardly roared like representatives of the feline family. According to a study by paleontologist Julia Clarke, crocodiles are the closest relatives of dinosaurs after birds, and these animals produce sounds either with the help of the larynx or are completely silent. By ear, such vocalization resembles a demonic belch rather than a lion's growl. It is likely that the tyrannosaurs sounded almost the same.
In his work, Clarke suggests that most dinosaurs probably hissed, grumbled, or made rather low frequency sounds. In addition, they most likely made noises not often and not during the hunt, but perhaps in the heat of a battle with an enemy from their own family or in the process of mating and mating.
The last thing a hungry hunter would want is to scare away his victim with an emotional cry. If a carnivore is hungry, it knows exactly when to shut up, and tyrannosaurs were certainly no exception to this rule. So the common scenes from films, where giant lizards roar with all their might, are just another figment of the fantasy of directors who want to impress their viewers.
T-rex had excellent eyesight
And again you will find another common myth exposed … In the scenes from the movie "Jurassic Park", you may remember that tyrannosaurs were not very well seen, and they only managed to hunt when their prey gave itself out by movement. However, science refutes this misconception. It turns out that the t-rex was able to detect its victim not only when she was trying to escape. According to some scientists, the king of all dinosaurs had excellent eyesight, and even better than most modern animals, including humans.
In the DinoMorph project led by Professor Kent Stevens, researchers used a computer program to recreate a graphical model of a dinosaur head to learn more about the brain and sensory perception of these ancient creatures.
Based on the findings, Stevens suggested that tyrannosaurs had nearly the same keen vision as modern hawks. It turns out that this formidable predator could see objects at a distance of 6 kilometers, which is much farther than ordinary people can see. In addition, the tee-rex had excellent depth perception (visual ability to perceive reality in its three dimensions, perceive distance to an object) and probably saw many colors. In other words, tyrannosaurs might notice you earlier than you did them. However, enviable sight was not the only weapon in the arsenal of this predator.
Tyrannosaurs had an excellent sense of smell
It is believed that tyrannosaurs were opportunistic predators with a flexible diet - they ate almost everything indiscriminately and did not shun carrion. For such a lifestyle, they clearly needed something else besides good eyesight. Fortunately for the tee-rex, he could find food thanks to his excellent sense of smell. The monster's olfactory bulbs were about the size of a grapefruit, so it had a powerful sense of smell to track down its prey by smell. This was useful primarily at night, when vision helps the hunter to a lesser extent. What the predator did not see, he could find with the help of his good sense of smell.
Returning to the plots of sci-fi movies about the uprising of the dinosaurs or time travel, it is not difficult to understand why many directors did not want to include this talent of an ancient beast in their storylines. Their films would simply end too quickly if the formidable predator could so easily smell the main characters or see them under almost any circumstance. In real life, brave teenagers unwittingly involved in a bloody adventure would have almost no chance against these creepy dinosaurs.
Did Tyrannosaurus Rex run so fast?
This time, you can finally breathe out. In many details, the popular film adaptations of giant lizards, of course, do not coincide with what they really were from the point of view of science. They were quieter, more insidious, they saw better and had an excellent sense of smell. However, researchers have huge doubts that these predators could run as fast as it is shown in famous films.
Could an ancient animal of such an impressive size and similar body structure develop great speed? Tyrannosaurus was probably not the fastest dinosaur of its time. Scientists suggest that a creature of this size (up to 12 meters in length from the tip of the tail to the head) was probably not capable of accelerating to a speed of 51 kilometers per hour, as it is represented in some scenes of Jurassic Park. According to experts, the maximum speed of tyrannosaurs was somewhere up to 19 kilometers per hour. This may not sound particularly intimidating, but remember, a predator doesn't have to be faster than you if it can sneak up close enough to catch you off guard. It is enough for him to be faster than his victim at a certain point in time. Most people are capable of accelerating to about 24 kilometers per hour, and even then only for a short time. In addition, we have already found outthat tyrannosaurs see too well, and very quiet hunters …
Tyrannosaurus bite force was incredible
The bite force of this animal was truly impressive. It is rather difficult to describe in words how tightly a Tyrannosaurus could clench its jaws. His grip was so powerful that he practically had no and still has no equal among all the land animals known to us.
Using computer models, scientists were able to make calculations to study the biomechanics of a ty-rex bite. According to the latest data, the force of compression of the jaws of the king of all lizards, armed with sharp teeth about the size of a banana, reached 5800 kilograms. No other land creature in the entire history of observations had higher than the indicator.
Let's go back to the films. Of course, it is understandable why the directors did not begin to reproduce prehistoric monsters with scientific accuracy. Who needs such perfect villains if they cannot be overcome by either a simple good-natured person or an experienced warrior? Add a phenomenally powerful grip to super vision, a keen sense of smell and a quiet gait, and our T-Rex will turn out to be invincible for the heroes of Jurassic Park, and after all, a happy ending is almost mandatory for any family movie.
Perhaps sometimes tyrannosaurs hunted in packs
Fossilized footprints of tyrannosaurs are sometimes found in whole groups (up to 3 individuals), which clearly moved in the same direction as a group. According to a study published by paleontologists in the international scientific journal PLOS One, ancient tyrannosaurs were sometimes hunted in groups of 3 predators.
Previously, these dinosaurs were considered staunch loners, so scientists are not entirely clear how Tyrannosaurs managed to develop such a coordinated hunting tactics, but the facts speak for themselves. Apparently, when the victim thought that she was able to escape from her lone pursuer, the unfortunate animal did not even suspect that a couple of tyrannosaurs hiding in ambush were already waiting for him quite nearby. The joint hunt was probably more successful.
Even their tiny "hands" were actually much more dangerous
The short front legs of the T-Rex have long been the subject of numerous jokes and cartoons. However, the question arises - why did such formidable and fearless creatures have such awkward front legs? It turns out that everything was somewhat more complicated. Paleontologist Jack Conrad points out in his work that the short forelimbs were actually very powerful. The scientist bases his assumption on the analysis of the muscular structure of a prehistoric animal and its attachment to the bones. It turns out that we are used to laughing at an animal, whose blow was in reality incredibly powerful. According to Konrad's estimates, the force of compression of the tyrannosaurus biceps reached 195 kilograms.
Tyrannosaurs may have liked to knock over their prey
In the West, the people have such fun as jumping over fences and overturning unsuspecting cattle asleep while standing. Could young and drunken tyrannosaurs jump over the fences and overwhelm sleeping cows on a dare? Jokes aside, we hasten to inform you that the T-Rex was probably still prone to such actions. According to a study published back in 2013, tyrannosaurs could use their funny short arms to carry out special attack tactics on harsh Triceratops: they sneak up on herbivorous prey and then rush to prey, clinging to their horns with their powerful forelimbs, depriving the Triceratops of balance and knocking over them on their side.
Yes, yes, with the help of a simple method, tyrannosaurs could overturn even such massive and resilient animals as Triceratops. If the fall itself did not bring serious damage to the bulky carcass of the herbivore (most often it did), then the exposed belly of the victim certainly remained literally defenseless, and the predator would definitely use this to strike its prey to death.
Perhaps such insidiousness seems incredible to you for such ancient creatures, but it could well be so. We already found out that tyrannosaurs were not the best runners, but they were good at sneaking up on their prey, and a face-to-face fight with horned Triceratops would be too dangerous, so the tactics of flipping prey from the side sounds quite justified.
You are probably used to illustrations in which the formidable tyrannosaurs simply bite off the head of small animals, but the hunting method described above could also become a very colorful scene if it is ever filmed.
Dinosaurs changed their appearance drastically as they got older
Babies of any kind are usually the cutest-looking creatures, as evidenced by thousands of plush toys. It's hard to imagine that a two-year-old creature would be dangerous enough, but according to a study of fossilized dinosaur remains by paleontologist Jack Horner, individuals of different species can be representatives of the same species of different ages.
To be precise, we will now focus on a prehistoric animal called nanothyrannus. Previously, scientists believed that this is some kind of dwarf species of tyrannosaurids, but later research suggests that the remains found belonged to a teenager from among the tyrannosaurs.
If this theory is correct, it turns out that tyrannosaurs, as they matured and grew, very much changed their appearance (up to the number and shape of teeth). Younger individuals were also more agile, faster and more flexible. Probably, they could chase smaller prey (the size of a person, for example), which the older and heavier T-Rex simply would not have chased. Older individuals were more likely to feed on carrion and used the tactics of knocking over large opponents, as we mentioned earlier.
Judging by all of the above, science can not only dispel the myths generously created by film producers for the amusement of the public, but also tell us an even more terrifying truth about the prehistoric kings of all lizards. It's good that their time has passed long ago …
