Chris on a mission for the truth about T. Rex
IT’S pretty much the most famous and iconic dinosaur in the world, thanks to its myriad representations in films and books. That massively monstrous toothily terrifying creature that was basically a prehistoric killing machine. It was the one we were most terrified of in Jurassic Park (til we learned about the others we’d never even heard of ): the one with the huge roar, the gigantic gnashers and the unbelievable hunting speed. But naturalist Chris Packham is on a serious scientific mission to find out just how accurate our version of the Tyrannosaurus Rex is.
Travelling the globe to meet leading experts in the field of paleontology and zoology, he aims to unravel the mysteries and mythology of this incredible creature.
By studying the dinosaurs closest living relatives and using fossils and trail-blazing technology, Chris and his team create the most accurate ever CGI representation of the T-Rex ever produced. And they uncover quite a few surprising facts. Like just how birdlike Rexy would have been, that parts of his skin were likely coloured and covered in bristles. They estimate that during adolescence, the teenage T-Rex would have put on 5lbs of weight a day (kind of like us as Christmas) to help it get to its monstrous size.
Although not all of it grew proportionately or as rapidly – hence those comedically tiny arms/front legs that come in very handy for gags in Toy Story. They also dispute quite a few of the ‘facts’ we’ve always believed – T-Rexs don’t roar, guys. And they can’t really run faster than humans or they’d fall over.
Not so scary now, right? Although their jaw pressure was an incredible 40 times stronger, meaning they could crush through enormous bones with ease and turn them to powder. Ok, scary again.