Imperial family among dinosaurs: Tyrannosaurus rex
During the hot, humid Cretaceous period, many parts of the continental coast were submerged by seawater due to rising sea levels, and the land area was far less than it is today. But that doesn't stop dinosaurs from continuing to wield power on Earth, as they have been rulers of the planet since the Jurassic period, while our ancestors, the early mammals, were just nameless people hiding in caves.
Standing at the top of this group of dinosaurs is undoubtedly the most ferocious carnivorous dinosaur in history , the Tyrannosaurus rex. It has a huge body, strong bite force and flexible limbs, etc., and has preyed on large and small prey, and can be said to be the strongest predator before the extinction of the dinosaurs. And this last-day emperor actually comes from a dinosaur family - the Tyrannosaurus rex family, Tyrannosaurus rex is the latest born "younger brother" in the tyrannosaurus family, in front of it there are five "older brothers", although living in different ages, different regions, but they are like Tyrannosaurus rex, is the top predator in their respective ecosystems.
The "big brother" feared the dragon and the "second brother" snake-haired female monster dragon were the earliest born, but they were much smaller than the Tyrannosaurus rex, with a body length of only 8 to 9 meters and a weight of about 2.5 tons. They lived together in the western plains of North America, but did not prey on each other, because the dinosaurs were more robust and generally preferred to prey on the smaller and more difficult to catch ankylosaurs and horned dragons, while the slightly thinner snake-haired female monster dragons preferred to eat larger platypus. Although the snake-haired female monster dragon does not have strange hair, it has a distinct protrusion above its eyes, which is more obvious than other tyrannosaurs.
How are dinosaurs classified?
Paleontologists mainly rely on the skeletal differences of dinosaurs to determine their position in the dinosaur family, such as dinosaurs are divided into sauropods and ornithopods, which is distinguished according to the shape of the dinosaur's pelvis more like a lizard or a bird's pelvis. Further subdivided, it is necessary to consider other physical characteristics and living habits of dinosaurs to further find out the exact ownership of this dinosaur. For example, the theropod suborder and sauropod suborder under the sauropod dinosaur have obvious differences such as bipedal walking or quadruped walking, plant-feeding or carnivorousness.
The Tyrannosaurus family belongs to the theropod suborder , and because they all have a large skull , a short neck , and a short forelimb , and other similar skeletal structures , they are classified as tyrannosaurs. But there are also differences in living age, region, appearance, living habits and more subtle skeletal differences, so they are divided into six different tyrannosaurs.
The "third brother" Zhucheng Tyrannosaurus rex and the "fourth brother" Tyrannosaurus rex were born a little later, and the body size was about the same size as the Tyrannosaurus Rex, with a body length of 10 to 12 meters, but the weight was only 4 to 6 tons, far stronger than the Tyrannosaurus Rex. They lived in Asia and mostly fed on duck-billed dragons, while ankylosaurs and horned dragons were only distributed in North America at the time, and they could not eat them. From the appearance, it is difficult for ordinary people to distinguish their differences from Tyrannosaurus rex, because they mainly have slight differences in skeletal structure, such as a circular gap on the front side of the maxilla of Zhucheng Tyrannosaurus rex, and the mandible of Tyrannosaurus rex has a special ridge-like protrusion.
The "fifth brother" is named Albert Dragon, 9 to 10 meters long, weighs about 2.5 tons, is the small size of the family, so it is not very conspicuous in the Tyrannosaurus family. However, although Albertosaurus was not taller than his younger brother T. rex, it was lighter and faster (40 km/h, T.A. was only 30 km/h), and Albertosaurus used a group combat mode, which could hunt more effectively than alone to catch flexible prey.
Why did Tyrannosaurus rex become the star of the Tyrannosaurus rex family
Although Tyrannosaurus rex was born in western North America between 68 million and 66 million years ago, and is the youngest brother, it is undoubtedly the most famous and powerful member of the Tyrannosaurus family. Why is the younger brother Tyrannosaurus Rex the most popular?
Scotty Fossil located at the Royal Museum of Saskatchewan, Canada.
The most robust
Tyrannosaurus rex is the largest in the Tyrannosaurus rex family, with a length of 12 to 13 meters and a weight of 8 to 14 tons, equivalent to the weight of three elephants. Moreover, the bones and muscles of the Tyrannosaurus rex are also the thickest, even if the tyrannosaurus rex with similar body length, the weight and stoutness are far less than the Tyrannosaurus rex.
Alamorosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex
The bite force is strongest
In terms of bite force, except for Albertosaurus, other tyrannosaurs have a bite force of more than 1 ton, but it is still far less than the bite force of tyrannosaurus rex weighing more than a dozen tons, which can help it more easily bite the bones of its prey. Even compared to all land animals, Tyrannosaurus rex has the highest bite force.
Stills from the movie Jurassic Park
Fossils are the most complete
The fossils of Tyrannosaurus rex are by far the most numerous and intact of the Tyrannosaurus rex family, such as the Tyrannosaurus rex "Su", whose fossil integrity exceeds 90%, ranking first among all tyrannosaur fossils. For paleontologists, the more dinosaur fossils found, the more complete they are, the more conducive it is to study the true face of dinosaurs, which makes T. rex frequently appear in the public eye, which is also an important reason for its fame.
The star of the human world
The promotion of film and television works also made the popularity of T-Rex soar, such as the vivid portrayal of the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the famous movie "Jurassic Park", making it the most famous member of the Tyrannosaurus rex family.
The largest Tyrannosaurus rex, Scotty
In 1991, in western Canada, a team of paleontologists discovered the largest Tyrannosaurus rex fossil to date and named it Scotty. It is 13 meters long and weighs about 9.8 tons.
Overlord deserves it not easily
Although the Tyrannosaurus rex is majestic, its hunting career is not smooth, because during the Cretaceous period, a group of powerful herbivorous dinosaurs were able to compete with the Tyrannosaurus rex by virtue of their own advantages, and the Tyrannosaurus rex could only be defeated if it was fully concentrated and full-fledged.
The huge Alamorosaurus
Alamorosaurus is the world's last giant herbivorous dinosaur, it can reach 28 to 30 meters long, weigh about 72.5 to 80 tons, long neck and tail, the body is also very thick, compared with it, Tyrannosaurus rex is like a child. Alamosaurus rex is not afraid of the Tyrannosaurus rex, even if the action is not more sensitive than the tyrannosaurus rex, the bite force is not strong enough, but its huge body can be hard with the tyrannosaurus rex, knock the tyrannosaurus rex to the ground, or use the thick tail to swing hard, causing fatal trauma to the tyrannosaurus rex. Tyrannosaurus rex generally did not dare to provoke adult Alamosaurus, and only dared to hunt the young Alamosaurus that had just been born.
Tyrannosaurus rex nibbled on carrion.
Larger spinosaurs
This is a dinosaur with long spines on its back, with a body of 14 to 20 meters long and 13 to 22 tons, it has become the largest carnivorous dinosaur that has been discovered, and if it wins or loses in terms of size, Tyrannosaurus rex is not its opponent. However, spinosaurs have long hands and short legs, and if they move on land, they need to support their large bodies by walking on all fours, which will greatly reduce its flexibility and make it difficult to deal with the agile Tyrannosaurus rex. But if you go down into the water, you enter the home of spinosaurus, it has webbing on its feet, it can swim flexibly in the water, spinosaurus is also the only carnivorous dinosaur that can swim, if the Tyrannosaurus rex goes into the water, it may not be able to beat the spinosaurus.
Ankylosaurus with armor protectors
Although it was a herbivorous dinosaur, it had a hard, strong armor with bone armor on the head, neck and sides of its body, like an armored tank, with strong defensive capabilities; And once its mallet-like tail is picked up, it can also give the enemy a fierce blow, so that many carnivorous dinosaurs dare not rush to attack, even the Tyrannosaurus Rex must be careful. Ankylosaurus can use its tail hammer to throw it on the leg of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, causing it a certain amount of skin and flesh injuries, although not fatal, but also weakening the Tyrannosaurus Rex's combat effectiveness.
A Triceratops with a long head
Triceratops was also a herbivorous dinosaur, but it had three pointed horns on its head, one of which grew above the eyes, about 1 meter long. It also has a fan-shaped bony head shield that acts like a shield to protect the fragile neck. So, if it's smart enough to stab its two horns straight into the Tyrannosaurus Rex, it will cause a lot of damage to the T.Rex.
Tyrannosaurus Rex Survival Challenge
Even if the Tyrannosaurus rex can dominate in front of its prey, it is not easy to maintain its own survival in nature, and it often faces various tests.
Competitors who grab meat to eat
Although Tyrannosaurus rex can defeat most dinosaurs, it still faces the challenge of dinosaurs competing for food. Scientists estimate that at the end of the Cretaceous period, there were at least 8 to 9 carnivorous dinosaurs in North America, and they would compete with each other for food, just as lions today would grab food with other predators. At that time, most of them were small herbivorous dinosaurs, which ran faster than T. rex, and were mostly hunted by round-robin carnivorous dinosaurs, and Tyrannosaurus rex could only hunt large herbivorous dinosaurs. However, several tons of prey could only be encountered once a year, so T. rex began frequently looking for other dinosaurs to eat the remaining corpses to alleviate hunger.
Asteroids that destroy dinosaurs
Even if the Tyrannosaurus Rex has the ability to hunt all the dinosaurs, it has no choice but to face the disasters of nature. About 65 million years ago, an asteroid with a diameter of 6 to 15 kilometers crashed into Earth, knocking a lot of dust and debris into the atmosphere. At the same time, the impact also triggered multiple volcanic eruptions, more dust entered the atmosphere, blocking most of the sunlight, and most of the plants that produced oxygen through photosynthesis died, and many plant-feeding herbivorous dinosaurs quickly starved to death. The Tyrannosaurus rex, which specialized in eating herbivorous dinosaurs, also gradually lost food, coupled with the earth's oxygen content decreased significantly, and the large and metabolic Tyrannosaurus rex could not tolerate long-term hunger and hypoxia, and gradually went to extinction.
Adult Tyrannosaurus rex
Even in the absence of natural disasters, small changes in climate and environment, such as global warming, sometimes make T.Rex struggling. Some scientists speculate that 150,000 years before the arrival of the asteroid, the earth had two obvious global warming, more and more arid areas, and the food and living space of the T. rex were greatly reduced, which accelerated the demise of the T. rex.
Short-lived Overlord
Although it was rampant, the lifespan of T. rex was very short compared to many herbivorous dinosaurs, some large herbivorous dinosaurs such as Lepidocus, generally lived to 100 years old, while most Tyrannosaurus rex died before the age of 20, no more than 30 years old, which is the result of the same kind of competition. Tyrannosaurus rex 18 years old adult, as soon as the adult began to court, male Tyrannosaurus rex may face the opponent of the same female Tyrannosaurus rex at any time, at this time, a fierce battle will be staged, the end is often either you die or I die, and the losing side will be eaten by the victorious side!
Although female Tyrannosaurus rex does not need to duel with a love enemy, she is in danger of starvation. During the incubation period, female Tyrannosaurus rex, in order to protect the dragon's eggs, did not dare to go away from the nest to find food, and could only rely on the male Tyrannosaurus rex to replenish; At the same time, the female Tyrannosaurus rex metabolism is very strong, it is difficult to resist long-term hunger, once the male Tyrannosaurus rex returns a step later, the female dragon can not withstand hunger and die.
It seems that the survival of the Tyrannosaurus rex is much more difficult than we think. In contrast, today's human beings are also in charge of the earth, full of power, and have advanced civilizations and advanced technology, but earthquakes, tsunamis, plagues and other disasters will easily destroy human lives, the evil effects of global warming are frequently appearing all over the earth, if the disaster like the asteroid hit the earth 65 million years ago comes again, can mankind be spared?