Alright, everyone ready for another deep dive?
Today we're going way back in time.
We're hanging out with a prehistoric celebrity, in fact.
Tyrannosaurus Rex.
I know what you're thinking, T-Rex.
Really?
He's like, the dinosaur, right?
Movies, books, everywhere.
But trust me, we're going beyond that.
We're digging into the real science
to see what T-Rex was all about.
Yeah, it's really amazing how much we're still learning, too.
Every fossil find adds something new.
Totally.
So to get us started, think about this.
Picture a creature longer than a school bus.
That's how big T-Rex was.
Seriously, could you imagine the thing just like,
walking around in those teeth?
Oh man, the teeth.
We're talking banana-sized teeth here, seriously.
Some people even call them lethal bananas.
I mean, you get why.
Okay, lethal bananas definitely go into my vocabulary.
And they had those huge skulls to fit them in, right?
Yeah.
But always gotta ask.
Yeah, those arms.
Like, what was going on there?
So small.
You'd think they'd be useless.
You'd think so, wouldn't you?
Turns out those puny arms were incredibly strong,
like bench pressing a piano strong.
Whoa, no way.
So much for arm wrestling at T-Rex.
What about their diet, though?
What were they using those lethal bananas on?
Well, their bite was 35 times stronger than a human's.
Forget chewing.
They could crush through bone.
Probably went after triceratops and other big dinos.
So the ultimate predator, then.
Or was it more complicated than that?
It's actually both.
They definitely hunted, but there's evidence they scavenged, too.
They were opportunistic, that's for sure.
Speaking of which, this is going to sound weird,
but scientists have actually found fossilized T-Rex poop,
you know, dot-copper lights.
And we're not talking like little piles here.
These things were huge, filled with crushed bones and stuff.
OK, that's a visual, all right.
But wait, fossilized poop, how's that helpful?
More than you'd think.
Those crushed bones tell us they ate bones, not just meat.
That incredible bite force let them get to the marrow
inside super nutritious.
So picture this, you're in a dinosaur stampede, right?
Who's winning that race?
I mean, T-Rex was huge, but could they actually
outrun their prey, you know, like in the movies,
chasing those jeeps?
Ah, yeah, the classic T-Rex chase.
Makes for great movies, but in reality, not so fast.
Really?
Yeah, based on their leg, scientists
think they were about as fast as, well, us.
Like human running.
No way, you're telling me all that size and power,
and they were stuck at, like, jigging speed?
Pretty much, which means they needed other advantages, right?
Like their senses.
Makes sense.
When you're not the fastest, you got to be smart about it.
What kind of senses are we talking about here?
Super hearing, like a bat.
Hearing was probably good, but imagine
a sense of smell so strong you could sniff out dinner
from miles away.
Seriously?
That's T-Rex.
Their olfactory system, the part of the brain for smell,
was even better than a vultures.
Wow, vultures are like the smell champions.
OK, so T-Rex is less about chasing,
more like sniffing out a buffet.
What about vision, though?
Good eyesight.
Oh, definitely.
Like most predators, they relied on their eyes,
positioned forward on the skull, too,
so they had depth perception, like us.
No sneaking up on a T-Rex, then.
They'd see you coming, then smell you, just to be sure.
OK, so we've got the size, the bite, the nose.
What about the rest of the look?
Were they scaly, like lizards?
That's a big debate.
We usually picture scales, but there's more and more evidence
that they might have had feathers.
Wait, hold on.
Feathers, like a bird?
Especially his babies, it seems.
Like little chicks, maybe with fluffy down.
OK, a fluffy baby T-Rex is both adorable and terrifying.
But did the adults keep the feathers?
That's the million dollar question.
Fossilized skin is super rare, so we don't know for sure yet.
All right, so maybe hold off on those scaly T-Rex costumes.
But you know what we do have?
Fossils.
And some of them are amazing, like Sue, the most complete T-Rex
skeleton ever found.
Absolutely.
Sue is a rock star.
Over 40 feet long, might have weighed nine tons.
And get this, the bones tell us about their life.
Hold up, you can tell that from bones.
Like a tree's rings, you can study growth rings in dinosaur
bone.
Sue lived to be about 28 years old.
That's old for a T-Rex, right?
Definitely.
And Sue had a rough life.
Heal injuries, broken ribs, even arthritis.
What a survivor.
See, this is why I love paleontology.
It's like time traveling detective work.
But there's one thing about Sue I got to ask.
We don't actually know if it was a he or a she, right?
How is that possible?
Yeah, it's surprisingly tricky.
Dinosaur skeletons, they don't always
have obvious differences between sexes.
But scientists are getting creative.
They're looking at bone structure,
even trying to find clues and fossilized eggs.
For now though, Sue's sex is still a big old mystery.
See, that's what I love about this stuff.
Always more to figure out.
Speaking of which, those tiny arms,
they just seem so un-T-Rex-like.
What's the deal there?
What were they even for?
Oh, you're not alone.
Those arms have stumped scientists for ages.
Lots of theories though.
Some say balance got to counter that huge head somehow,
right?
Others think they were stronger than they looked.
Maybe for holding on to prey while those lethal bananas
did their work.
OK, so maybe underestimate those little arms at your own risk.
Right.
Or maybe they were for something we haven't even
thought of yet.
That's the cool part, isn't it?
Totally.
Always more to discover.
And hey, speaking of growing, remember
how fast T-Rex's got big?
Imagine being a teenager, but you're
packing on like hundreds of pounds a year.
Can you imagine the grocery bill?
Seriously though, their growth rate was insane.
Scientists figured they could gain over 1,300 pounds per year
in that teenage growth spurt.
Wild.
That's like gaining a whole cow every year.
All right, so big, strong, great sniffers.
What about their social lives though?
Were they loners or did they roll up in packs
like the T-Rex crew?
Another good question.
Most fossils point to them being solitary,
but there's some debate.
Maybe during mating season or if there was a ton of food,
they teamed up.
Who knows?
Man, a T-Rex pack would be something else.
Talk about a site really makes you think,
even with all we do know, there's still
so much mystery to them.
Totally.
So before we wrap up our T-Rex deep dive,
let's recap those awesome dino facts.
We're talking a bone crushing bite 35 times stronger
than ours, a sense of smell that puts blood hounds to shame.
And don't forget that growth spurt.
Plus, we're still learning about how they looked, acted,
all that.
It's mind blowing how much we've
figured out about these creatures
from millions of years ago.
But it's also kind of humbling how much we don't know yet.
Absolutely.
And that's what keeps it exciting.
There's always something new waiting to be discovered.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Well, that's all the time we have for today's deep dive.
Huge thanks to everyone for joining us on this trip.
Back to the age of the dinosaurs.
Keep those brains buzzing.
Keep asking questions.
And we'll see you next time for another deep dive.