Ever since its discovery in 1905, the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex has attained a celebrity status that is unique among dinosaurs. While larger and more ruthless dinosaurs have since been discovered, T. rex and his famished companions, the Allosaurus and Velociraptor, continue to secure leading roles in films such as Jurassic Park, Night of the Museum and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
Contrary to what most might think, however, T. rex's image is far from over hyped; recent research from the University of Liverpool suggests that the tyrant lizard has the strongest bite of any terrestrial animal to ever walk this planet.
While paleontologists have long disputed T. rex's status as an apex predator, arguing that the T. rex was just a lowly scavenger, there is little question that the tyrant lizard could snack on humans. T. rex's crushing bite would probably earn it a Guinness World Record under "most dangerous animal to ever roam the Earth." Interestingly, the study indicates that T. rex's bite strength changes during its lifetime, an adaptation that most likely led to reduced competition between parents and offspring.
Karl Bates and colleagues found that younger T. rex dinosaurs had significantly weaker bites, which probably indicates that they used their fearsome bite less often than their older companions. This sheltered T. rex youngsters from the pressure of competing against their stronger fathers.
To test the dinosaur's bite strength, the researchers created a model of T. rex's skull by digitally scanning skulls from an adult and juvenile T. rex, an Allosaurus, an alligator and an adult human. Their estimate of T. rex's bite strength exceeded those of previous studies, which used skeletal models to create tooth indentations that matched those on the fossils of T. rex's unfortunate victims.
Using the computer models, Bates and his team simulated T. rex's bite in a way that allowed them to directly measure its impressive force and speed. Amazingly, the force exerted by just one razor-sharp tooth was an estimated 7,868 to 12,814 pounds. For all you physicists, that's somewhere along the line of 35,000 and 57,000 newtons. Talk about a large F!
The force of a T. rex bite is equivalent to having a medium-sized elephant sit on you. In other words, if you ever want a hands-on experience of what a T. rex's bite feels like, consider ticking off an African elephant on your next safari trip.
T. rex's skull shape allowed ample room for chewing muscles, enabling a powerful bite that justifies the tyrant's reputation as one of the most fearsome reptiles in dinosaur history.
However, T. rex might fall short if the aquatic arena is considered. According to the researchers, it is possible that the shark Megalodon had an even stronger bite. This colossal predator puts great white sharks and perhaps even T. rex to shame with a maximum bite force of around 20 tons. If the theories are true, then a movie about Megalodon could make Jurassic Park and Piranha look like Disney movies.
Nowadays, it is quite difficult to imagine the actual impact of a dinosaur bite. Evolutionary trends have led to reductions in body size for many animals, and the dinosaurs' untimely extinction has proved to be quite constraining for the imagination. According to Peter Falkingham of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, the true strength of the T. rex can be comprehended by looking at the comparatively lower bite strengths of the lion and alligator. Considering the amount of meat these modern predators can tear through, it is not hard to image the T. rex crushing large bones.
Clearly, T. rex would have needed some sort of bite guard to stop its skull from breaking during a serious snacking session. Indeed, past studies have shown that the dinosaur's fused nasal bones enhanced its tremendous bite force while serving as a skull protector. Even when Falkingham and colleagues scaled the models for differences in body size, the adult T. rex was found to have a much stronger bite than its juvenile counterparts.
Juvenile T. rex dinosaurs may have compensated for their lower jaw strengths with their increased athletic ability and proportionally longer arms. These differences indicate that the dinosaur's diet likely changed over time, allowing the T. rex to become a growing threat as it matured. Aren't you glad that dinosaurs are extinct?
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