The real T. rex did not look like the monster of "Jurassic Park". These 13 discoveries upset our image of the "king of dinosaurs".

Aylin Woodward, provided by

published

7:42 AM CDT Wednesday 13 March 2019

• Tyrannosaurus rex has captivated the public imagination since the "King of Dinosaurs" made its way into the "Jurassic Park".
• But when Steven Spielberg's blockbuster was made in 1993, paleontologists did not know much about T. rex – there were only seven or eight skeletons in the fossil record.
• Since then, a dozen extra skeletons of T. rex have been discovered, changing our understanding of these creatures.
• The American Museum of Natural History has created the most accurate representation of what T. rex looked like in a new exhibition on the famous dinosaur.

If your image of Tyrannosaurus rex is based on the ferocious creature of "Jurassic Park", you already have a lot of things that do not go about the "king of dinosaurs".

In recent years, paleontologists have revised the scientific consensus on the appearance, sound and consumption of T. rex.

"Everyone's preconceptions about what T. rex looked like and what it looked like will be dramatically changed," Mark Norell, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, told Business Insider. The museum has just opened an exhibition dedicated to the dino, entitled "T. rex: the ultimate predator".

The exhibition presents the latest research on the prehistoric animal. And it turns out that these predators started life as fuzzy newborns the size of a turkey. They also had excellent vision, with eyes turned forward, like a hawk for a better perception of depth. And T. Rexes could not run – instead, they were walking at an impressive speed of up to 25 mph.

Read more: Baby T. rexes were covered with peach fluff and the size of small turkeys – this is what they looked like

But to be fair with Steven Spielberg, only seven or eight T. rex skeletons existed in the fossil record when his classic film was produced in 1993. Since then, a dozen skeletons have been discovered and these bones have changed the understanding scientists the creatures.

Here is what T. rex really looked like when he hunted there 66 million years ago, according to the experts of the AMNH.

The first skeleton of T. rex was discovered in 1902 by Barnum Brown, paleontologist of the AMNH.

© Library AMNH 121779

Today, the institution has one of the rare original T. rex skeletons presented.

Tyrannosaurus rex – Greek words for "tyrant" and "lizard" and the Latin word for "king" – lived between 68 and 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous (just before the impact of the asteroid that ended the era the dinosaurs).

T. rex rocked a feather mule on the head and neck, as well as on the tail.

Illustration by Zhao Chuang / courtesy of PNSO

Feathers are rarely kept in the fossil record, so they have not been found on a specimen of T. rex. But other dinosaur fossils, including other species of tyrannosaurs and their parents, have preserved feathers.

This means that paleontologists can "safely assume" that T. rex also has feathers, Norell said.

Although adult T. rexes are mostly covered with scales, scientists believe they have feather spots on areas that attract attention, such as head and tail.

The newborns of T. rex looked more like soft turkeys than terrifying predators.

D. Finnish / American Museum of Natural History.

The newborns of T. rex were covered with peach down, much like a duck. As they get older, they have lost most of their feathers, keeping only those on their head, neck and tail.

Most newborns did not survive before infancy. A T. rex baby had a greater than 60% chance of succumbing to predators, illness, accident or starvation in its first year of life.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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SEE ALSO: Scientists have discovered a new dinosaur that has arms like a T Rex