Study Says The T-Rex Was Much Larger Than Scientists Previously Thought
A new study indicates that the average T-Rex was 70% larger than scientists had previously thought.
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With hit blockbuster movies like Jurassic Park bringing the childhood fantasies of dinosaurs back into moviegoers minds over the past three decades, scientists seem to always discover more and more about our prehistoric friends. Monsters that roamed the Earth millions of years ago, dinosaurs have become a favorite topic of conversation amongst youngsters, mostly because of their representation on film. According to a report by Ripley’s, a new study states that while Steven Spielberg depicted the Tyrannosaurus Rex, aka the T-Rex, as a large creature, scientists now believe that it was 70% larger than previously thought.
Paleontologists and other researchers who recently conducted the study on the T-Rex have found that previous scientists might have underestimated just how big the king of the dinosaurs actually was, specifically speaking about the weight of the long deceased animal. The Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Canada recently made the information about the T-Rex available, noting that the creature most likely weighed closer to 33,000 pounds rather than the 20,000 pounds estimated from previous fossils found. To put it into perspective, the new weight of the T-Rex is equal to that of 6.6 African elephants or three whale sharks in today’s standards.
Some might question why the process of weighing a dinosaur like the T-Rex takes so long, especially considering the renewed attention the creatures have had in recent years with multiple Jurassic World films being produced starring Chris Pratt. Scientists have so far only been able to work with 32 known fossilized adult specimens up to this point, even though an estimated billions of these kinds of dinosaurs once roamed the planet. The researchers have also had to contend with the idea that some of their fossils come from younger T-Rexs and some from more mature adults, so estimating their weight has always proved to be quite the challenge.
Though new revelations from scientists proving that the T-Rex was most likely 70% larger in size than originally predicted, there seems to be more research needed on the subject matter. The sample size of these dinosaurs is so small that any new details that come from them may need to be taken with a grain of salt, so to speak. The scientists that have been involved in this new study hope that the new discoveries about the T-Rex’s weight will serve as a reminder that their is more to uncover about the Cretaceous period and its ancient inhabitants.
It should also be taken into consideration that some of the new information reported about the T-Rex is coming by way of Ripley’s, an organization long known for its use of the dinosaur species as part of a promotional tool for their museum. In Los Angeles, “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!” is located in the Hollywood area and boasts a large T-Rex wearing sunglasses on the roof of the museum. The iconic statue is just one symbol of the museum that is mostly popular for its collections of strange oddities and attractions that have long entertained tourists for years.
