For the time it was made, and from what was known about dinosaurs, the T-rex from Jurassic Park was a decently accurate reconstruction of the animal.
And pretty scary, too.
The thing is, now, nearly thirty years later, our knowledge of all dinosaurs, especially the T-rex, has changed dramatically.
We have a lot of new information about Tyrannosaurus. Evidently, the animal is by far the most famous dinosaur and the most studied extinct animal of all.
I can’t emphasize how well, in light of the time it was made, the T-rex was done. The work was really exquisite. But today, if it were redone, it would have to have some modifications.
For example, the film demonstrates our beloved carnivore as follows:
You see, looking at the overall size of the animal, there is clearly too little meat.
The critter is visually less plump than it probably was.
This is Sue, one of the most complete T-rex specimens. Realize that she has gastralia: a set of bones also known as an abdominal rib that is basically, very roughly speaking, an inverted rib.
Notice that even the animal’s skeletal structure is much more “robust” than what you see in the Jurassic Park movies.
The T. rex skeleton is actually quite famous for being robust. Basically, it had huge, long, thick legs, a gigantic head with long teeth, and a torso that, in life, would probably have been VERY MUSCULAR.
If we put muscle on those bones, you can see that T. rex was basically a Cretaceous period bodybuilder.
What the movie got right very well is that Tyrannosaurus did have scaly skin. The animatronics production and construction team accurately predicted the hide of large tyrannosaurids.
That’s because T-rex apparently lacked feathers, as some researchers have recently suggested. [1]
The view of the modern T-Rex is that it was indeed a robust brute, muscular (even more so than depicted in the film) and covered in scales, like an alligator.
And invariably terrifying.
Remember that tyrannosaurus is also an umbrella term in paleontology. There is everything in this genre of animals. From dog-sized tyrannosaurs like Guanlong and Dilong:
Guanlong
dilong
Even bigger and scarier monsters like Yutyrannus:
Yutyrannus
Note that the Yutyrannus had, yes, the body covered with feathers.
There are others, more like what we think of a Tyrannosaurus.
Daspletosaurus.
Albertosaurus.
And this figure here called Lythronax , which basically means “Bloody King”, found in the United States, more precisely, in Utah:
Lythronax
And, of course, the very famous Tyrannosaurus rex .
Tyrannosaurus rex .
The film also shows prominent horns above the animal’s eyes. Do you remember?
But is this based on science, Rafinha?
Yes it is.
There is evidence that large tyrannosaurids had keratinized scales on top of their snouts and, above the eyes, keratinized horns.
What about the pet’s arms?
The movie dino’s arms were somewhat longer than they should have been. The original T-rex had a smaller and probably less functional arm than it appears in the movie. Which isn’t to say it was totally useless. Just that it was something visually less impressive.
Another very wrong element of the T.rex’s depiction in the movies is the hand position.
Look at the palms of the hands: facing downwards. We now know that no theropod could have held that position without breaking its own wrists, let alone a Late Cretaceous tyrannosaurid.
Regarding the vision… Do you remember that in the movie Dr. Grant says Tyrannosaurus rex can’t see you unless you’re moving?
In this scene, Dr. Grant claims that T. rex vision is based on the victim’s movement.
As a paleontologist, the doctor should have known that the tyrannosaurus’ eyesight was indeed exceptional.
“In particular, because of its large scale and wide frontal view, Tyrannosaurus rex, of all sighted observers that ever lived, may have experienced the most spectacular view of the three-dimensional world.”
Therefore, doctor, the strategy of staying still so as not to be detected by the animal would be very bad for its survival. I do not recommend.
Not to mention the smell: T. rex also had remarkable olfactory acuity.
Recent research concluded that tyrannosaurids, like dromaeosaurids, relied heavily on their sense of smell, as evidenced by larger-than-expected olfactory bulbs. Obviously, it was an animal that had a very good sense of smell.
The film did not show the T-rex sniffing out the protagonists. Serious.
But most importantly, and perhaps the film’s most notable mistake was that… TYRANNOSAURS COULD NOT ROAR!
The video below illustrates this issue well, giving examples of how T-Rex could actually communicate using guttural sounds . It’s not very pretty, but it’s certainly less scary.
Another one of the myths created by the film.