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Tyrannosaurus

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In the Books[]

LordSlyme

Lord Slyme, a Tyrannosaurus

T. rex
Full Name
It can't remember.
Age
It can't count.
Rank
Yes, very.
Planet Of Hatching
Likes
Hunting, scavenging, sleeping.
Dislikes
Conversation.
DSS Rating
10 - Foes don't come any nastier than T. rexes!

Tyrannosaurus rex, or T. rex for short, are a species of dinosaur which inhabits Teerex Major and numerous colony worlds, like Planet Sixty.

Tyrannosaurus are violent, unpredictable, and ravenous, having no qualms about even eating others of their own breed, and cannot be reasoned with. They are ferocious rivals and enemies of the raptors. These carnivores dislike talking to creatures that they regard as meals, but some are more conversational than others. Tyrannosaurus constantly make errors in grammar when they speak and appear to be extremely slow-witted to the point of illiteracy, as Arx confirms in Teeth of the T. rex. However, at least some are able to read and write. Their cannibalistic habits kept them from making proper records of their own history. Their art is made up of images of filthy things, especially dung. Unlike raptors, who launch raids in packs, Tyrannosaurus are solitary dinosaurs and rarely travel in groups outside of invasion fleets and meetings on Teerex Major.

Braxus

Braxus the Tyrannosaurus judge.

It was a Tyrannosaurus invasion party which took over Platus, proving that these ruthless predators constantly scour space in search of new worlds to conquer. They also started a war against the Triceratops which lasted for eighteen years. They are feared all over the Vegetarian Sector for their ferocity and lack of common sense. Tyrannosaurus reach decisions quickly and are very stubborn. They apparently build things that they have no use for (they built a library in St. Bonecracker's Prison when the inmates can't read or write) and often loudly threaten to eat other dinosaurs. Tyrannosaurus delight in rudeness and bad smells, and have a very coarse sense of humor which extends to their art. They can either be brown, gold, blue, or green in color.

Notable Tyrannosaurus include Lord Slyme, Braxus, Fangetta, Brigadier Skunch, Chef Sheff, Lord Ganster, their leader King Groosum, and Thickhead McBrick.

Species[]

Real Tyrannosaurus rex were large predatory dinosaurs, about 12 metres in length, which lived at the very end of the Cretaceous Period in North America, 67 to 65 million years ago. Tyrannosaurus are one of the most famous of all dinosaur species and the most well-known member of the theropods, a family of mostly meat-eating or omnivorous dinosaurs. They lived alongside other famous dinosaurs like Triceratops and Ankylosaurus, which they preyed on. Tyrannosaurus's arms were small, with only two fingers, but were very muscular and may have been used to pin down prey while Tyrannosaurus used a powerful bite, three times as strong as a lion's, to kill it. Tyrannosaurus was very muscular, with teeth meant for crushing bone, and it's believed that it often hunted large, armored, potentially dangerous prey like the above-mentioned Ankylosaurus and Triceratops in quick but brutal direct combat.

For a time it was believed by some paleontologists that Tyrannosaurus with its powerful sense of smell was more of a scavenger than a hunter, using its size to chase smaller predators away from carcasses. However, there are fossils of other dinosaurs with evidence of healed Tyrannosaurus bites to the tail or face, meaning that living dinosaurs were directly attacked by a Tyrannosaurus and survived the attack. It’s currently believed that, like most carnivores, Tyrannosaurus both opportunistically fed on carcasses and hunted living dinosaurs.

FTDM-TREX

Fred Wierum's life restoration of a Tyrannosaurus.

They may have hunted in small groups and, unlike the ones in the Astrosaurs series, are thought to have been intelligent predators with an array of powerful senses. Tyrannosaurus had keen eyesight that would let it spot potential prey from 6 kilometers away (even better than modern hawks), sensitive hearing, and a strong sense of smell. It's known that they fought among each other and may have eaten dead territorial rivals. It’s unlikely that real Tyrannosaurus roared, instead making quieter, booming sounds that could be picked up by another Tyrannosaurus for communication. Like most modern predators, it would have been quiet when actively hunting and ambushing prey, using special fleshy pads on its feet to silence its footsteps.

Tyrannosaurus is the largest and best-known member of the tyrannosaurs, a family of theropod dinosaurs with ancestry in the Middle Jurassic but which became increasingly important during the Cretaceous. Members of this family included Daspletosaurus and Dryptosaurus. It was one of the largest of all theropod dinosaurs, smaller than Spinosaurus and Giganotosaurus but more heavily built than those two. While Tyrannosaurus was once thought to be a carnosaur because of its large size and superpredator status, it was actually a coelurosaur, more closely related to small carnivores like Compsognathus or Velociraptor than the carnosaurs like Allosaurus or Giganotosaurus. While T. rex's original discoverer, Barnum Brown, correctly identified it as a massive coelurosaur, he was overruled by Henry Fairfield Osborn, who named and described the animal. While Tyrannosaurus and some of its family members like Tarbosaurus and Daspletosaurus were large, imposing dinosaurs, earlier tyrannosaurs like Dilong and Proceratosaurus were much smaller and lighter, reflecting their origin as small predators.

Tyrannosaurus may have had feathers when it was young. This is suggested by the discovery of smaller, feathered tyrannosaurs like Dilong, which was discovered in 2004 in China, which lived 130 million years ago, and the even earlier Guanlong, which lived 160 million years ago. It may have lost most of them as it aged (as current knowledge of its skin covering suggests), since it may not have needed the insulation at adult size. The name Tyrannosaurus rex means "tyrant lizard king".

Trivia[]

  • The Tyrannosaurus in the Astrosaurs books are drawn with three to five fingers. Real Tyrannosaurus only had two on each hand, but these hands were powerful. It's believed that they were used to hold prey down for a fatal bite.
  • While the Tyrannosaurus in the Astrosaurs books are the stupidest dinosaurs in the series, it’s believed that real Tyrannosaurus were intelligent predators capable of complex social behavior and dangerously effective hunters. They may have been as smart as dogs, baboons, or alligators - the latter is no small feat, since alligators and crocodiles are smart enough to learn tricks, intentionally test their enclosures for weak points, recognize names given by their keepers, and use tools in the wild. Tyrannosaurus rex would have been among the smartest and most sophisticated predators of its time.
  • The Tyrannosaurus in the Astrosaurs books have forked tongues like snakes and some lizards. Dinosaurs didn’t have forked tongues, and in particular theropods like Tyrannosaurus probably had stiff tongues fixed to the bottom of their mouths like modern crocodiles. With its extremely powerful eyesight and sense of smell, Tyrannosaurus rex wouldn’t have needed a forked tongue to find and track prey.
  • While the Tyrannosaurus in the books are solitary outside of meetings or invasion parties, there is evidence from the related dinosaur Daspletosaurus that tyrannosaurs may have hunted in packs or small family groups.

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