Science and the movies have blended almost seamlessly to give audiences a view of what the Tyrannosaurus rex looked like. But they all may have gotten it wrong, at least in size.
With modern computer modeling, research by scientists at The Royal Veterinary College in London, and The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago shows that the T-rex may have been twice as fast and reached weighed up to 30 percent more than previously thought. Five actual T-rex skeletons were used as a starting point.
The skeletons were laser scanned to create 3-D models. Creating digital cross-sections, leaving spaces for vital organs and allowing for a margin of error, scientists were left with a range of sizes, versus one average size that most tyrannosaurs probably either exceeded or never reached.
The results are a fascinating glimpse of what these magnificent creatures really looked like. But let’s be glad that no one’s trying to clone them to take a first hand look, at least not yet.