T. Rex Fossil Dig

FACTS: What a thrill, to hunt for dinosaurs the way paleontologists do! Discovering fossils of Tyrannosaurus rex, the terrible lizard king, requires incredible luck plus knowledge and patience. First get to the right geological area, then walk around, scrutinize the ground and inspect for bits of bone. If you spot a tooth, claw, or perhaps even a skull, then the digging and excavating fun begins! While millions of T. rex individuals have lived, only a few dozen have ever been discovered as fossilized bones. Even for this giant dinosaur, the chances of becoming a fossil were vanishingly small.

When we think of T. rex fossils, we think of massive complete skeletons that you see on display in museums across the world. Yet any tooth, claw or bone specimen can also tell us a lot about the dinosaur’s behavior. Living over 66 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period, T. rexwas a remarkable hunter. Thanks to the discovery of fossils, we know that T. rex weighed 16,000 pounds and reached 40-feet in length. T. rex walked heavily on its great legs with its head jutting forward.

While their lives were devoted to killing others, T. rex often died a premature death, whether inflicted by the lethal horns of triceratops, by flash floods or by the asteroid that crashed into Earth and heralded the end of the age of the dinosaurs. Fortunately for us human beings, the abrupt extinction of these terrifying and magnificent creatures gave mammals the opportunity to evolve and thrive.