Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Tyrannosaurus Rex--The Tyrant Lizard King.

Some of you may have heard of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. You know, the bobble-headed dinosaur with comically teeny arms? And some of you may know that T-Rex was a pretty vicious dude, but just how vicious?
 

This "King of the Tyrant Lizards" wreaked havoc during the Late-Cretaceous Period, throughout what is now western North America. Being one of the largest theropods to ever exist, and standing at around 13ft tall, measuring up to 40ft long, and weighing about 7 tons, T-Rex sat smugly at the top of the food chain.

And don't let the seemingly useless micro arms fool you. Though they were certainly dwarfed by the massive size of this great beast, T-Rex's arms were still about 3ft long and could bench press more than 400lbs, which is three times more powerful than the average human. That's right, Tyrannosaurus Rex would have destroyed any one of you in an arm-wrestling match. So keep on laughing, chucklehead.


It's obvious by now that their arms weren't vestigial, so what the hell were these tiny limbs good for? Primarily, they were useful in grasping and stabilizing their prey. Because no one likes it when their dinner tries to escape them while they're devouring it raw. The arms were also used to push T-Rex off the ground if he fell during combat, which is actually WAY more important than it seems. If they didn't have this leverage, Tyrannosaurus Rex would have likely never survived as a species as they'd be stuck being giant roly-polies, writhing around helplessly on the ground while all the other dinosaurs pointed and laughed. But the hypothesized main purpose of these puny arms was so that T-Rex could enjoy some hot thrusting action. Screw calling it "doggie style", from now on it's going to be "T-Rex style".


You heard it here first, bitches.


So, what was it that made Tyrannosaurus Rex so damn terrifying anyway? His deadly banana teeth. T-Rex came equipped with around 50 teeth the size and shape of a banana, all nestled inside a 4ft long jaw. And that's not even the worst of it! Not only could they consume up to 500lbs of delicious dino in one bite, but they did it with a crushing force of 1,500-3,000lbs. In comparison, humans have a bite force of 175lbs. This means that Tyrannosaurus Rex had a chomping force three times the amount estimated for a great white shark, and 15 times the force of an African lion. Holy shit is right! And it might even get more horrifying...it's speculated that T-Rex might have had infectious saliva. Their tooth serrations may have held onto bacteria-infested carcass meat, making the already deadly bite an even deadlier, infectious bite, much like the Komodo dragon. Wonderful.

 

"But, Courtney, I heard that Tyrannosaurus Rex can't see objects if they're not moving. So if I just stood still, I'd be safe, right?"

Not a fucking chance.


You see, Tyrannosaurus Rex had a binocular range of 55 degrees. What is binocular range, you ask? It's the area that can be viewed by both eyes at one time. So, a wider range would mean better depth perception, and a greater depth perception means a better capacity to distinguish objects that are motionless or camouflaged. And since T-Rex had front-facing eyes set in a narrow skull, which created an overlap in fields of vision, this gave them pretty decent depth perception. Tyrannosaurus Rex could also discern objects 6km (or nearly 4mi) away, while we humans can only see shit 1.6km (or 1mi) away. Not to mention, these dudes had an amazing sense of smell, comparable to that of modern day vultures. So, if you ever crossed paths with this great tyrant, you'd essentially be fucked.

 

And don't even think about running away from this dreadful brute. Despite the fact that T-Rex probably didn't run, and only walked on its toes, he could still traipse about at a speed of 11-25mph. In contrast, the average person runs at a speed of 8mph, meaning that T-Rex could simply Michael Myers chase your ass for a late night snack. So, yeah, regardless of the idea that Tyrannosaurus Rex may have been covered in fuzz like a baby chick, and possessed amusingly minute arms, and had a tendency to tiptoe through the tulips, he certainly wasn't someone you'd want to fuck with. Unless, of course, you wanted to play a little game of "Monkey in the Middle". Cause that shit would be funny as hell.

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