Complex life developed five hundred and eighty million years ago.
In that time our planet has been home to some truly amazing animals and has been the stage for incredible dramas and adventures.
Rextooth Studios is a publisher telling stories about the awesome creatures that have called - and still do call - our planet home.
Welcome to Creature Feature from Rextooth Studios!
We’re kicking off this new web series with Rextooth’s namesake, The Prize Fighter of Antiquity, The King of All Kings, The Most Formidable Fighting Animal For Which There is Any Record, The Absolute Warlord of the Earth, The Tyrant Lizard, The King of the Dinosaurs…
TYRANNOSAURUS REX, a.k.a T. rex (Not T-REX, T-Rex, T.REX, Tee rex, or Tea rex)
We told you rex wasn't going anywhere!
Over a century ago, fossil-hunters journeyed into the dust and baking sun of the American west. Today, field-crews of paleontologists do the same, digging through the rocks and dirt - digging through time - to unveil a lost world and the monsters that ruled it.
In 1902, fossil-hunter Barnum Brown discovered the first hints of a giant meat-eater in the badlands of Montana. Three years later, Brown unearthed a nearly complete skeleton of the beast that would come to be known as Tyrannosaurus rex.
T. rex was introduced to modernity on the grandest stage - The American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and the tyrant king took the world by storm.
And today, over 100 years later, T. rex still dominates the headlines.
We’re still fascinated by this carnivorous colossus.
Over 40 feet long, 13 feet tall at the hip, weighing nearly 10 tons, with a bite that could shatter bone, by the latest Cretaceous, Tyrannosaurus rex was the undisputed monarch of North America.
Fossil discoveries have taught us a great deal about T. rex. For instance, this carnivore’s battery of senses was extraordinary.
The first tool at rex’s disposal was a sense of smell among the best in the animal kingdom - one that could track prey from miles away.
Next up is T. rex’s remarkable eyesight. The king of the dinosaurs could spot prey from about three and a half miles away. That’s about three and a half times better than a human can see. It’s even better than today’s eagle-eyed birds of prey.
The bigger the eye, the better the vision, and T. rex had eyes the size of grapefruits. That means rex could see you, even from far away. Even if you don’t move.
But not to worry, you could always outrun a hungry T. rex… right?
Much has been published in recent years about the tyrant king’s running speed, or lack thereof. The mighty beast’s top speed has been reevaluated and has indeed suffered a significant decrease since its days of running down speeding Jeeps on the silver screens of the 90’s.
It seems the king of the dinosaurs was only capable of a top speed of about 15 miles per hour. Now, before you go thinking that’s slow, find a treadmill, set the speed to 15 mph, and see how long you can manage…
And keep in mind, T. rex and its tyrannosaur cousins have special adaptations in their leg and foot bones for aiding distance and agility. Couple that with hollow bones and a system of air sacs throughout the body - just like modern birds - to lighten the load and act like an extra set of lungs to super-charge rex’s cardio. All that means, The Prize Fighter of Antiquity can keep the pace for a long time…
Best get running.
And what happens if you’re caught by an animal the size of a bus with a mouth full of railroad spikes? Well…
There are a lot of stats on T. rex’s biting power; 8,000 pounds of pressure, 35,000 newtons, 430,000 pounds per square inch. At a certain point, the numbers become irrelevant.
Muscle and bone explode between the teeth of Tyrannosaurus rex.
T. rex has been a star since day one - with a hype-machine unrivaled in the world of paleontology. Being the most popular dinosaur has naturally turned rex into the most well-studied dinosaur. Often, it can seem like other important fossil discoveries wither in the shadow of the tyrant lizard, and to a degree that is true. But T. rex’s unending time in the spotlight is no burden to paleontology. T. rex is a rarity in our world - it lives up to the hype, and so it is the perfect ambassador.
How many people, of all ages, have come to museums to see the king of the dinosaurs, or opened a book because T. rex was on the cover? Too many to count, certainly. But it’s rex that gets them in the door, into the book, tuned into the documentary, into a place where they can learn about other dinosaurs, other fossil creatures, or living creatures who are at risk of extinction themselves. They can learn about ecosystems, ecology, geology, the depths of time and the depths of space - the world around us and the universe at large - the body of knowledge and the means by which we attain it - science.
It’s science that takes on on a journey through time, to learn about the past so we can prepare for and protect the future. And for so many, it’s T. rex that extends a curiously tiny clawed hand and takes us on the first steps of that journey.
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For more adventures with the tyrant lizard king, check out;
Alright, that's about all the pugilistic product puns and warlord-y wordplay we could come up with! See you next time on Creature Feature, when we travel to the watery depths of the Eocene to meet the sea serpent of Victorian nightmares!
Oh, yeah, one more thing!
T. REX by Ted Rechlin, 2024. More news on this coming soon!
