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"The most ferocious and insatiable carnivore ever to step on the face of the planet."
Ed Regis(src)

Tyrannosaurus rex is arguably the most famous dinosaur of them all. Tyrannosaurus was the last and largest of the Tyrannosaurs.[1] Commonly known as "T. rex", this species lived during the Late Cretaceous Period in modern day North America and was therefore among one of the last non-avian dinosaurs. In popular culture, Tyrannosaurus has an iconic status shared by few other species.

Like other tyrannosaurids, Tyrannosaurus had very short arms with only 2 fingers. Despite the limbs' size, each were able to bench-press about 400 pounds. Although these were probably nearly useless while hunting, its jaws were not: Tyrannosaurus has an enormous skull armed with teeth the size of bananas. Unlike the teeth of most theropods, the teeth of tyrannosaurids are very thick and capable of crushing bones and with a bite force of a minimum 4 tons of force and probably more, crushing bone, ripping flesh, and bursting blood vessels of their unlucky victim. The skull and neck bones show that T. rex had the largest neck muscles of any meat-eating dinosaur. It possibly used its strong neck to twist and pull off big chunks of meat that it grasped with its jaws while supporting the huge head. Tyrannosaurus could bite with extremely strong force - one fossilized skeleton shows that it crushed and swallowed the bones of a smaller plant-eating dinosaur while another shows a Tyrannosaurus coprolite with the crushed frill of a Triceratops.[1]

History[]

Prehistory[]

Paleontologist Dr. John Roxton once created casts of the brain case of Tyrannosaurus and concluded it was similar to amphibians and thus concluded that the eyesight of Tyrannosaurus was based on movement.[2] Several paleontologists andf scientists believed his theory, including George Baselton.[3] However, some, like Dr. Richard Levine did not believe his theory. Levine argued that because the common defense mechanism in prey animals is to stand still and a predator has to be able to see them, it would be impossible for an animal such as T. rex to have motion-based vision.[2]

Another theory about Tyrannosaurus vision that was proposed by Alan Grant was that T. rex could become confused in a rain storm because it could not adapt to wet climates. Dr. Levine did not believe this theory either as tyrannosaurs had only ever been found in places prone to rainstorms.[2] Dr. Grant also believed that Tyrannosaurus were scavengers rather than hunters.[4]

Creation[]

Tyrannosaurus was created in a laboratory located in a village owned by InGen on Isla Sorna for Jurassic Park.[5]

Two Version 4.1[6][7][8]Tyrannosaurus were shipped to Isla Nublar as attractions for Jurassic Park: a two year old[9] juvenile and an adult (whom Jurassic Park game warden Robert Muldoon later dubbed "Rexy" during the InGen Incident[10][11]). While living in the enclosure, the juvenile kept her distance from the adult[6] and learned to catch fish at the lagoon of the enclosure.[9] Since the Sauropod Paddock was nearby, the adult would stare at the Apatosaurus nearby and would wiggle her forearms in frustration.[9] There was a problem in the paddock as tyrannosaurs would sometimes get sick from something in the water of the lagoon.[12]

InGen Incident[]

See: Rexy (novel canon) and Juvenile Tyrannosaur

During Nedry’s sabotage, the creatures broke free of their enclosure. The juvenile escaped first, likely pushing under the fence, followed by the adult escaped soon after, the latter of which proceeded to attack both cars, mortally wounding Ian Malcolm, and nearly killing Dr. Grant and the two kids. [13] The only other person in the area at that time, Ed Regis, fled into the woods before the crisis had happened. After the attack, the juvenile later killed Ed Regis.[14]

The next day, the adult hunts and kills a Hadrosaurus,[15] and later falls asleep near the Raft Storage Building with her kill. Dr. Grant and the children later find her sleeping and managed to acquire a raft that they used to go down a river, but when Lex starts to cough uncontrollably, the rex woke up and took to the water, swimming after them, though she abandoned the pursuit when she sees the juvenile T. rex with dead Apatosaurus.[16]

After an unsuccessfully chasing the juvenile, the adult found herself in the jungles of the Jungle River Cruise. While there, she made a failed attempt at attack Dr. Grant and the kids in their raft before disturbing a pair of Dilophosaurus in courtship.[17] Afterward, she is found by Muldoon and Donald Gennaro. Muldoon shoots her with a very large tranquilizer dart, which causes the Tyrannosaurus rex to pass out while she was trying to eat Tim behind a waterfall.[11] It is possible, although not directly mentioned, that the adult Tyrannosaurus drowned as she is never retrieved by the staff.[18]

Wild on Isla Sorna[]

Though the Tyrannosaurus on Isla Nublar were destroyed, there were still surviving individuals on the neighboring island Isla Sorna. From 1988-1989, after six weeks of goat's milk, all the carnivores being raised, including Tyrannosaurus, were fed a protein from ground up sheep.[19] Eventually, this allowed for the spread of the prion known as "DX" among the cloned dinosaurs.[20] To combat this, they outfitted the dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus, with Grumbach field tags and released them into the wild, tracking them through a radio network.[21]

At some point after November 1989 or later,[22] InGen personnel abandoned the island and the work they were doing, the most likely cause being the company's bankruptcy. By 1995, there were two adult T. rex on the island, a male and female, and had a nest[23] located south of the island's Village.[24] It is unknown how the male existed as Tyrannosaurus rex was not among the six dinosaurs with amphibian DNA[25] and the cloned dinosaurs were irradiated to destroy gonadal tissue.[26]

1995 Isla Sorna Expedition[]

At the time of the expedition, two eggs in the nest of the Tyrannosaurus couple had hatched.[23] While the expedition team lead by Dr. Ian Malcolm was exploring the village's manufacturing plant, the male Tyrannosaurus entered the area. Having been alerted by Arby Benton over the radio of their Explorer and seeing the approaching T. rex on the car's dashboard, the men stayed tensely in the car. During the male's examination, he scent marked the car before returning to his nest.[27]

As the male Tyrannosaurus traveled to the nest, Dr. Richard Levine spotted the carnivore and proceeded to follow him via bicycle.[27] Upon reaching the nest, Dr. Levine climbed up a tree where he observed the parental behavior of the large carnivores.[23] Arby saw Levine when he was following the T. rex on the Site B Network and asked Dr. Doc Thorne if he had seen Levine, which Throne had not.[27] Since the purpose of the expedition team's arrival was to find Dr. Levine[28] Throne asked Arby how and where he had seen Levine. After receiving Richard's coordinates, Throne took the motorcycle on the Explorer and followed the male Tyrannosaurus to the T. rex nest.[27] When Jack found Levine, Levine accidentally fell from the tree he was in. His fall made too much noise which alerted the tyrannosaur parents. One of them chased the two men our of their nest and briefly pursued them when they were on Throne's motorcycle until they out of range of the nesting ground.[23]

Later, the team of Biosyn agents lead by Dr. Lewis Dodgson tried to steal the eggs of Tyrannosaurus.[3] The attempt fails, resulting in George Baselton being eaten,[29] Howard King breaking the leg of one of the babies,[30] and their jeep being pushed stuck in thick undergrowth. King and Dodgson were both rendered unconscious from the raid.[29]

Afterward, Ian Malcolm, Sarah Harding, Eddie Carr, and Jack Throne arrived at the nest while the parents were gone.[30] The team had become aware of BioSyn's presence on the island when they saw their modified jeep going to the Tyrannosaurus territory[31] and Arby and Kelly Curtis witnessed BioSyn's raid from the monitor inside the trailer while the adults driving to that location got reports over the radio from the two.[3][29][2]

As they prepared to leave due to the parents soon returning to their nest, Eddie asked what would be done about the baby dinosaur with the broken leg. He was commanded by both Harding and Malcolm to kill it, as its broken leg would kill it regardless.[30] However, Eddie, believing that the juvenile could easily be healed and returned back to its nest, instead secretly injected it with morphine[32] and drove back to the trailer with the tyrannosaur.[33] Thorne, Malcolm, and Levine believed Eddie's actions to be wrong, but Dr. Harding chose to heal the young T. rex anyway and the team puts a temporary cast on its broken leg.[32]

While Malcolm and Harding were alone together trying to nurse the baby back to help the parents arrived and began to kick the trailer down a cliff even after the people inside gave them their baby.[19] However, Throne scared off the Tyrannosaurs using the modified Biosyn jeep that had just been unstuck and that Thorne also found.[34]

In the final encounter with the human visitors, the father Tyrannosaur approached Harding's Explorer just after Dodgson tried to get inside the vehicle. Dodgson hid underneath the vehicle with her, but she pushed him to the side where he was then snatched by the T. rex.[35] Dodgson was then taken to be eaten by the hatchlings, one of which had just hatched.[36]

The clones, as well as the rest of the dinosaurs, were doomed to extinction once more in the future due to the spread of the DX prions on Isla Sorna.[20]

Characteristics[]

Like all the cloned theropods, the cloned Tyrannosaurus had pronated hands. These traits were most likely implemented by InGen on purpose, as at the time T. rex had been cloned the study disproving pronated hands had not been published.

In the novel, it is mentioned that the Tyrannosaurus did not have strong jaws and relied on its powerful neck muscles rather than bite force to tear off flesh. While this was true for many other theropods, it is now known that the Tyrannosaurus had one of the most powerful bites of any creature to walk the Earth.

Version 4.1[]

At Version 4.1[6][7][8] and from the age of two and into adulthood, the clones had fully scaled skin. As adults, the skin was very sensitive in this version of Tyrannosaurus and it could sunburn easily, causing them to seek shade from the sunlight. The skin color of the adults was described as being a mottled reddish brown.[9] The adults were known to swim like a crocodile[16] and had very strong and flexible tongue akin to an elephant's trunk.[11]

Wild[]

The tyrannosaurs that were wild on Isla Sorna were similar to the Version 4.1 Tyrannosaurus, but were capable of somehow changing sex in the absence of rana. Though the adults had reddish scaled skin, leathery in appearance, the infants had red down feathers with a ring of these feathers in pale white around their necks.[23]

There was sexual dimorphism among the clones. One of the most visible traits between the sexes was that females had longer tails than the males (as both were described as being twenty feet in height). The Isla Sorna map featured on the first pages of the novel The Lost World give the length of the Tyrannosaurus as 42 ft (12.8 meters), but it is unknown which sex this represents.

The clones showed great parental care for their young. Tyrannosaurs would make pair bonds after mating and would constantly tend to their nests.[23] The only known nest made by the cloned T. rex was a mud mound[23][3] that was nearly 4 feet high[23] and the female who owned this nest laid a total of 6 eggs.[37]

Appearances[]

See also[]

Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Holtz T.R., Brett-Surman M., Jurassic World Dinosaur Field Guide, page 126-127
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 The Lost World: "Decision"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 The Lost World: "Nest III"
  4. The Lost World: "Palo Alto"
  5. The Lost World: "Interior"
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Jurassic Park: "Control II"
  7. 7.0 7.1 Jurassic Park: "Control V"
  8. 8.0 8.1 Jurassic Park: "Under Control"
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Jurassic Park: "Big Rex"
  10. Jurassic Park: "Search"
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 Jurassic Park: "Tyrannosaur"
  12. Jurassic Park: "Control III"
  13. Jurassic Park: "The Main Road"
  14. Jurassic Park: "Lex"
  15. Jurassic Park: "Dawn"
  16. 16.0 16.1 Jurassic Park: "The Park II"
  17. Jurassic Park: "Aviary"
  18. Jurassic Park: "Control IX"
  19. 19.0 19.1 The Lost World: "Trailer III"
  20. 20.0 20.1 The Lost World: "Departure II"
  21. The Lost World: "Laboratory"
  22. The available node services on Isla Sorna at the time of the 1995 expedition were last modified around the dates of October-November 1989. Meaning that InGen left the island in November or after.
  23. 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 23.5 23.6 23.7 The Lost World: "Nest" Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Nest" defined multiple times with different content
  24. Islasornamap The Lost World Map
  25. Jurassic Park: "Tim
  26. Jurassic Park: "The Tour"
  27. 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 The Lost World: "Power"
  28. The Lost World: "Field Systems"
  29. 29.0 29.1 29.2 The Lost World: "Dodgson III"
  30. 30.0 30.1 30.2 The Lost World: "Nest IV"
  31. The Lost World: "Trailer II"
  32. 32.0 32.1 The Lost World: "Baby"
  33. The Lost World: "Bad News"
  34. The Lost World: "Thorne II"
  35. The Lost World: "Explorer"
  36. The Lost World: "Dodgson IV"
  37. In the chapter "Nest IV" of The Lost World, when Dr. Sarah Harding enters the nest after Biosyn had raided it, she sees two infants and three eggs. Since Howard King had stole one of the eggs, it can be deducted that before the raid the nest contained six eggs by the events of the second novel.

External links[]

Smallwikipedialogo Tyrannosaurus on Wikipedia

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