T rex actually couldn’t twist its arms to make its hands face palm downward, as is commonly depicted. The most plausible suggestions scientists have come up with so far include slashing and holding onto prey and use in communicating between T rex individuals. It is likely they were used in a range of behaviour. Muscle reconstructions show that T rex arms were strong for their size and had a reasonable range of motion. T rex, rather than being the grandparent of the modern chicken, is more like an oversized cousin to all birds. A handful of these humble bird species survived the mass extinction that killed their dinosaur relatives and evolved into all the birds we know today. It was still living at the time of T rex. Scientists have identified an ancestor of modern ducks and chickens as the quail-sized Asteriornis, nicknamed the wonderchicken by scientists. These ancient birds first appeared in the Jurassic period, millions of years before T rex evolved. Birds belong to a lineage of dinosaurs closely related to the raptors (including Velociraptor).Įarly birds, such as Archaeopteryx, had wings like modern birds but teeth and long tails like their ancestors. All birds, including chickens, are not only descendants of dinosaurs but are themselves dinosaurs. Myth: Chickens are the direct descendants of T rex Although it makes for good dramatic tension in fiction, standing still would not hide you from a hungry T rex. Like birds and crocodiles, T rex could distinguish more colours of the rainbow than humans and see ultraviolet light. The grapefruit-sized eyes of T rex could have distinguished objects with up to five times more precision than those of a falcon and 13 times better than a human. Scientists think that T rex had excellent vision, despite what Jurassic Park might have you believe. But how well do you really know T rex? Here is the truth behind five common misconceptions about this dinosaur. One skeleton broke records in 2020 when it sold at auction for US$32 million (£25 million).

As a creature to be feared for its bone-crushing bite or ridiculed for its inability to give a high five, T rex has captured the imagination of children and adults alike. An icon from the age of dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex has featured in everything from blockbuster movies to the shape of chicken nuggets.

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