Tyrannosaurus rex
At the Museum: Fossil Cast Skull, you can visit it just outsidd the Museum entrance.
NAME: Tyrannosaurus
Meaning: Tyrant Lizard
Pronounced: TIE-ran-oh-SORE-us
By: Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1905
DIET: Carnivore, was probably both an active predator and a scavenger
SIZE:
Length: up to about 40 feet (12.3 meters) long
Height: 12 feet (3.66 meters) at the hips
Weight: 9.3 tons
WHEN IT LIVED: Late Cretaceous, 68 to 66 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED: Western North America, which at the time was an island called Laramidia. Fossils found in from Wyoming to Mexico. See map at right.
CLASSIFICATION:
Kingdom Animalia (animals)
Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
Order Saurischia (lizard hipped dinosaurs)
Suborder Theropoda (bipedal carnivores)
Tetanura (advanced theropods with three fingers)
Superfamily Carnosauria
Family Tyrannosauridae
Genus Tyrannosaurus
Species: Tyrannosaurus rex
FUN FACTS:
Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the last non-avian dinosaurs, dying out when the Cretaceous ended 66 million years ago. In Arizona, they live alongside Alamosaurus, Torosaurus, Bravoceratops, Ojoceratops, Edmontosaurus, Kritosaurus, Gryposaurus, Glypotodntopelta, Ojoraptosaurus, Troӧdon, and Richardoestesia. Also living alongside them was the pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus.
Feathers?
Some dinosaurs related to Tyrannosaurus are known to have had feathers, and some have speculated that Tyrannosaurus did too. Most paleontologists now seem to agree that they probably had feathers as young, but adults would have had few if any.
Installing our Tyrannosaurus rex skull on the outside wall.
