Tyrannosaurus rex : King of the Dinosaurs

"In the last thirty years, the number of tyrannosaurs has increased threefold."
"The golden age of paleontology is right now."
"We have as much evidence that T.rex had feathers as we do that Neanderthals had hair."
Mark Norell, curator, fossil amphibians, reptiles and birds, American Museum of Natural History, New York

"It took evolution a long time to make T.rex."
"For most of the time they [early tyrannosaurs] were second- or even third-tier predators."
"People who study non-dinosaurs say dinosaurs get all the attention. People who study dinosaurs say theropods get all the attention."
"People who study theropods, say, oh, tyrannosaurs get all the attention."
Stephen Brusatte, paleontologist, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

Tyrannosaurus rex, by the very indisputable fact that it is the largest land predator that has ever existed, does, quite, 'get all the attention', focusing peoples' minds on their incredible size, ferocity, temperament and appetite. It was named the world's most charismatic megafossil, after T.rex was described in 1905. That first fossil, and its monumental size was thought to be an anomaly, that another would likely never be disinterred.

Yet for over a century, T.rex has added extraordinarily to the study of dinosaurs with the pace of discovery recently ramped up with many of the new findings about T.rex along with other tyrannosaurs recognized as its relatives. Now, T.Rex: The Ultimate Predator, a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History is slated to showcase that ancient monster of size and appetite. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington is set to reopen its hall of fossils with its own T.rex in a new stance, in June.

According to Dr. Mark Norell, curator at the American Museum of Natural History, T.rex has been an enormous assist in fostering a surge of interest in dinosaur paleontology given the rising number of researchers and new fossil discoveries thanks to the increase in the sophistication of new study techniques. "The golden age of paleontology is right now", stated his co-curator of the new show, Gregory Erickson, a paleobiologist at Florida State University.

"There were probably only six of us in the world who were paid" to study dinosaurs exclusively, explained Phillip J. Currie, paleobiologist at the University of Alberta. "Right now, there's maybe 150", he said, in light of the explosion in the field. The first discovery of T.rex created a sensation, and now each new skeleton or partial skeleton find has been met with the same kind of enthusiasm. The Field Museum in Chicago attracts international attention with its T.rex skeleton.

That skeleton, discovered in 1990, turned out to be the largest, most complete T.rex ever, which the museum paid $8.3 million for. Another giant skeleton discovered shortly afterward is set to be unveiled at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina, in May. Few finds are 90 percent intact as was the Chicago skeleton. Studies, with the use of CT scans, chemical analyses and new microscopic techniques illuminate behaviour, evolution and sensory capacities of T.rex.

The skull's musculature indicated that T.rex had a bite strength of 3,540 kilograms, deemed sufficient to cleave bones of other massive dinosaurs. Bone growth rings' studies led to a determination of how old individuals dinosaurs were and how swiftly they grew to maturity. T.rex, it appears, gained over two kilograms daily in its teenage years, living to age 30, at most. Judging by fossilized footprints of a dinosaur grouping, T.rex was held to be a social animal, one that likely hunted in groups.

Its brain was large even for its size, leading to the conclusion that its intelligence level was higher than other dinosaurs'. T.rex had excellent vision, with ears adapted for hearing low-frequency sounds and its brain case suggests that T.rex's olfactory capacity was superb. Feathers? It had feathers, more in its younger years, but likely had a tail plume at maturity though no T.rex fossil has been found indicating the presence of feathers.

According to Dr. Norell, considering what is known about other tyrannosaurs, related dinosaurs and the course of evolution, scientists are confident in asserting that T.rex had feathers growing out of parts of its hide.

There are over two dozen other dinosaurs dating back 100 million years before T.rex came on the scene, included in its superfamily of tyrannosaurs. The early tyrannosaurs for the most part were small; some chicken-sized while many were the size or dogs or deer. They were not the top predators for most of the 100 million years of their existence.

Then came the emergence of T.rex close to the end of the age of dinosaurs, swiftly becoming the dominant predator in North America. A reputation that draws some irritation from researchers of other early creatures that evolved aeons ago.

Visitors to T. rex: The Ultimate Predator will encounter a massive life-sized model of T. rex with patches of feathers—the most scientifically accurate representation of T. rex to date.
D. Finnin/© AMNH

China's 'Indiana Jones'

"Basically we are reconstructing the evolutionary tree of life."
"If you have more species to study, you have more branches on that tree, more information about the history of life on Earth."
"The developer [of a construction project] was really not happy with me [when Chinese law kicked in to allow archaeology to inspect the site]."
"To publish papers and discover new species, you need new data -- you need new fossils [finding new species isn't something a scientist can plan]."
"My experience tells me that you really need luck, besides your hard work. Then you can make some important discoveries."
Xu Xing, paleontologist, Beijing, China

In this Sept. 13, 2018, photo, paleontologist Xu Xing brushes away sediment to examine fossils recovered from a dig site in Yanji, China. The excavation, led by Xu, begun after construction crews erecting new apartment buildings accidentally uncovered dinosaur bones and other fossils, dating back 100 million years. (AP Photo/Christina Larson)

China's building boom is unprecedented, anywhere in the world, as the country's vast geography is impacted by growing urbanization caused by rural dwellers moving in great numbers from farms and countryside to newly growing cities. To accommodate this huge transfer of population migration cities are expanding, the building boom in new apartment complexes leading to the areas being exposed to steam shovels becoming archaeological dig sites. And China's foremost paleontologist Xu Xing, is prepared to respond to as many of those new sites as he possibly can.

In this one year coming to an end alone, he has been responsible for unearthing seven new species of dinosaur, one that is 200 million years old among them, representing the most ancient specimen he has so far discovered. In his career all told, Xu has named over 70 dinosaurs, a number far exceeding claims by any other living paleontologists. And to maintain that record he is dependent on China's construction boom where fossils are continually being churned up as sites are in the process of being prepared for construction.

Paleontologist Xu Xing stands in front of a dig site in Yanji, China.

Christina Larson/The Associated Press

Leads from the building boom has him speeding to present himself everywhere in the country, and as a result he has earned the popular sobriquet of "China's Indiana Jones".

In the past four decades, the populations of Chinese cities has quintupled to close on 900 million people. It is anticipated that by the time 2030 rolls around, one in five city-dwellers in the world will be of Chinese extraction. Some of China's largest, most sprawling metropolises are under pressure to accommodate ever-greater numbers of people. Urban sprawl spreads in major city clusters such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebel and the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions.

One of Xu's latest finds out of a construction site in Jiangxi province is set to throw light on how the reproductive systems of modern birds evolved from their dinosaur ancestors. School children in countries around the world, introduced by their teachers to the exploits of the man whose celebrity as a world-leading scientist continues to grow, mail him handwritten notes and crayon drawings of dinosaurs. He has hung several in his Beijing office. And astonishingly, he makes an effort to respond to them all.

A paleontologist from the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum in Japan, Toru Sekiy, assisted on the Yanji dig, and speaks of his Chinese colleague as "a superstar paleontologist" whose discoveries previously include the eight-metre-long gigantoraptor as well as the microraptor, a tiny, four-winged dinosaur weighing about a kilogram.

In this Sept. 12, 2018, photo, a dinosaur model stands near the site of a future dinosaur museum in Yanji, China.    Christina Larson/The Associated Press

Xu is also inspired in an especially creative manner in the naming of species, with the imaginative use of Chinese culture to end up with names such as Mei Long ("Sleeping dragon"), the Dilong Paradoxus ("emperor dragon"), and the Nanyangosaurus whose name was inspired by a city close to its origins which also happens to be the place where a famous military strategist in Chinese history was born.

Xu's 2016 experience in Yanji, located geographically an hour from the border with North Korea. represented an intersection of interests between heritage/archaeology and development, when city authorities obeying a national law saw that construction on adjacent highrise buildings was suspended to enable archaeological exploration to proceed and the builders to cool their heels until the dig was closed eventually.

The city of Yanji accommodatingly built an on-site police station to ensure the unearthed fossils would be guarded from possible theft. At such time as the excavation is complete, a city museum is planned which will display recovered fossils and photographs of Xu's paleontological team at work.

In this Sept. 12, 2018, photo, paleontologist Xu Xing examines an ancient crocodile skull and teeth, recovered from a dig site in Yanji, China. The excavation was begun after construction crews erecting new apartment buildings accidentally uncovered dinosaur bones and other fossils, dating back 100 million years. (AP Photo/Christina Larson)