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It's hard to imagine a Tyrannosaurus rex as a baby.
But it turned out that T. rex's newborns were rather weak and helpless – most did not live past their first birthday and succumbed to the disease, other predators or food shortages. . The young dinosaurs also looked like ducklings and were covered with a layer of down.
A new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), titled "T. rex: the ultimate predator", sheds light on these and other recent discoveries about the "king of dinosaurs" to correct ideas false on the T. rex.
"Everyone's preconceptions about what T. rex looked like and what it was going to look like will be dramatically changed," Mark Norell, curator of the new AMNH exhibition, told Business Insider. Here is what we learned about the tiny T. rexes.
T. rexes had impressive growth spurts
A T. rex baby had a greater than 60% chance of succumbing to predators, disease, accidents or starvation during its first year of life.
Despite this vulnerability, scientists do not know if T. rex's parents cared for their offspring before or after hatching. There has never been found eggs or nests of T. rex, but fossils from other relatives of Tyrannosaurs suggest that they have laid elongated eggs, about 20 or more at the same time. time.
Adult T. rexes may have kept their nests in the same way as birds or parents of crocodiles (they are their closest relatives) and may have nursed their young, but there is no direct evidence of prenatal care. The fossilized footprints show however that the Tyrannosaurs traveled together.
The T. rexes who went through their first year took incredibly fast growth after that, gaining up to 1,700 pounds a year until they reach adult size at 20 years of age.
The dinosaur bones, just like the trees, have rings of growth corresponding to the age of the animal. Experts can count the number of rings to determine the age of T. rex at the time of death, but also determine the rate of growth of a dinosaur at different ages by comparing the spaces between growth rings.
According to these bone records, T. rexes seems to have grown five times faster than a human being.
Adult rexes were betting on their strong bite
Once fuzzy predators grew up, they quickly became ferocious predators. The juvenile and adult rexes probably hunted different prey and probably lived in different habitats. Because they were smaller and lighter than adults, young T. rexes were fast, flexible hunters. They used their forelimbs to catch prey, but their blade-shaped teeth could not yet crush the bones, unlike adult rex teeth.
Adult T. rexes could measure up to 43 feet long and weigh up to 9 tons. But this weight kept them from running and jumping like their juvenile counterparts. Instead, they were walking at impressive speeds of up to 25 miles at the time.
Read more: The T. Rex could not actually sprint like in "Jurassic Park" – but it was still a deadly creature
Cultivated rexes did not need their meager paws before to eat, but rather killed prey using their huge jaws lined with jagged teeth. These teeth were replaced throughout the life of the animal – new and sharp were constantly developing.
Adult rexes could bite with a force of 1,800 kilograms (the most powerful predator alive), allowing them to sneak into strong bones.
T. rexes lived short lives
Paleontologists believe that juveniles had scales and feathers to camouflage and warm up, which may have played a role in attracting their mates. At the end of its growth, however, T. rex probably lost most of its plumage, although it kept a trail of feathers along its arms, tail and head. The rest of his body was covered with scales.
According to the experts of the AMNH, no T. rex has lived after the age of 30 years.
As their life was short but full of activities, Gregory Erickson, a paleontologist who consulted on the new exhibit, says that T. rex is "the James Dean of the dinosaurs".
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