Name meaning: Tyrant lizard king
Height: 20 feet (6 meters)
Length: 47 feet (14 meters)
Weight: 9 tonnes
Tyrannosaurus Rex is one of, if not, the most famous of all dinosaurs species. Tyrannosaurus was the largest of the Tyrannosaur family, and by extension one of the largest theropods, reaching twelve metres in length. Commonly known as "T-Rex", this infamous species lived during the Late Cretaceous Period in modern day North America and was therefore among one of the last non-avian dinosaurs.
Like other tyrannosaurids, Tyrannosaurus had very short arms with only two fingers. 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. The skull and neck bones show that T. rex had the largest neck MUSCLES of any meat-eating dinosaur. It probably used its strong neck to twist and pull off big chunks of meat that it grasped with its jaws. Tyrannosaurus could bite with extremely strong force - one fossilized skeleton shows that it crushed and swallowed the bones of a smaller plant-eating dinosaur.
In popular culture, Tyrannosaurus has an iconic status shared by few other species, helped in no small part by the prominent role of the T-Rex in all four films in the Jurassic Park franchise.
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