rex has expanded so greatly in the past few decades thanks to more fossils, more ways of analyzing them and better ways of integrating information over the multiple fossils known,” he said. “It’s surprising how much we actually know about these dinosaurs and, from that, how much more we can compute. “In some ways, this has been a paleontological exercise in how much we can know, and how we go about knowing it,” said Marshall, a study coauthor and UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology and of Earth and planetary science, in a statement. “The great impact of this study may be that it shows just how rare fossils are, in that they only represent a small fraction of the individual organisms that existed not to mention depth of time as in how much happens in a few thousand to a million years,” Poole said. Meanwhile, the results also allowed the report authors to determine that only about 1 in 80 million T. The study authors estimate that the population density of the species equated to 3,800 of the carnivorous dinosaurs in an area the size of California – but only two in an area the size of Washington DC. “So really this could help understand things like change in a species over time as it relates to evolution and changing ecosystems.” “I am sure it will open doors for getting even better focus on the questions of population density and what that means over time,” Poole added in an email. Poole, head fossil preparator at Bighorn Basin Paleontological Institute and a paleontological artist, who was not part of the study. The researchers’ methods “seem to be very informative while also showing the present limits of what can be done with what we now know,” said Jason C. With a standing population of 20,000 of the dinosaurs, and with some 127,000 generations of the species, there would be 2.5 billion dinosaurs overall, the team determined. Researchers discover a dinosaur preserved sitting on a nest of eggs with fossilized embryos, a first Shundong Bi/Indiana University of Pennslyvania Photo by Shundong Bi, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Multiple eggs (including at least three that contain embryos) are clearly visible, as are the forearms, pelvis, hind limbs, and partial tail of the adult. The ~70-million-year-old fossil in question: an adult oviraptorid theropod dinosaur sitting atop a nest of its eggs. rex lasted for around 19 years, with there being one dinosaur for every 100 square kilometers (38.6 miles). The dinosaur’s average adult body mass was around 5,200 kilograms (11,464 pounds), and a growth spurt at sexual maturity could send them to 7,000 kilograms (15,432 pounds).įrom these estimates, the team came to the conclusion that each generation of T. rex was 15.5 years, and its lifespan could reach into the late 20s. This, the researchers say in a study published in the journal Science, means that some 2.5 billion of the predators lived and died over the approximately 2.5 million years during which the dinosaurs lived.įor the first time, the team also calculated the longevity of the dinosaur: Using scientific literature and expert opinion, they estimated that the likely age of sexual maturity for a T. rex, which lived throughout North America, probably existed at any one time. Using the fossil record, density data and data from climate models, the UC Berkeley team calculated that roughly 20,000 adult T. rex,” Ibrahim added in an email.Ģ0,000 T. “We just have to keep in mind that all of these intriguing studies come with a certain dose of uncertainty – there is just so much we still don’t know about dinosaurs, even a Hollywood star like T. “Previously researchers have tried to estimate things like the likely home range size of Tyrannosaurus, and its basic energetic needs, so this is a neat extension of previous work, and it includes lots of updated information on Tyrannosaurus,” said Nizar Ibrahim, paleontologist at the University of Portsmouth (UK) and National Geographic Explorer, who was not part of the research. You need information from somewhere else – for example, the density of Easter eggs, the area over which eggs might be found, and for how many years Easter eggs have been placed in gardens.” “If you find an Easter egg in your garden, how can you estimate how many Easter eggs that have ever existed? It simply can’t be done. “There is just no information to make the estimate,” explained Charles Marshall, director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology, who was part of the research team. rex lookalike with an unusual skull terrorized Patagonia 80 million years ago Jorge Blanco and Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology An artist impression of Llukalkan aliocranianus by Jorge Blanco.
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