T-Rex Was More Massive Than We Thought

You probably thought Tyrannosaurus Rex could not be any more awesome, but you’d be wrong; scientists have discovered that the terrible lizard was even bigger than previously believed, or at least heavier. Scientists examined the skeleton of “Sue,” the largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton ever unearthed, at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, and discovered that she could have been up to a third heavier than we thought, and grown about twice as fast, the AFP reports.

Old estimates had been based on scale models, and had pegged Sue at around six tons. This time scientists used a digital model, hanging simulated flesh on a laser scan of the skeleton. They concluded that Sue, if well fed, could have weighed up to 9 tons. Scale models “can magnify even minor errors,” one researcher explained. “We overcame such problems by using the actual skeletons as a starting point.” (More Tyrannosaurus rex stories.)