New Scientist
Image: Amanda Kelley
As if Tyrannosaurus rex wasn’t terrifying enough already. A skeleton in Canada belonged to a T. rex that was comfortably heavier than any other previously found, making it the largest land predator on record. The discovery means we may have underestimated just how large predatory dinosaurs could grow.
T. rex was one of the last non-bird dinosaurs to evolve, and it has long been considered a contender for the largest ever predatory dinosaur. That case was made even stronger following the discovery of Sue – a 90 per cent complete T. rex skeleton unearthed in 1990.
Sue was described as the largest animal of its kind in the world, but this title now belongs to the Canadian newcomer: Scotty.
“We’re talking about basically a 400-kilogram difference,” says Scott Persons at the University of Alberta, Canada. According to his team’s calculations, Sue weighed an impressive 8460 kilograms, but Scotty tipped the scales at 8870 kilograms. To put it another way, Scotty was a couple of adult male lions heavier than Sue. Read more on newscientist.com…
