Tyrannosaurus rex is unique among dinosaurs in its place in modern culture; paleontologistRobert Bakker has called it "the most popular dinosaur among people of all ages, all cultures, and all nationalities".[1] Paleontologists Mark Norell and Lowell Dingus have likewise called it "the most famous dinosaur of all times."[2]PaleoartistGregory S. Paul has called it "the theropod. [...] This is the public's favorite dinosaur [...] Even the formations it is found in have fantastic names like Hell Creek and Lance."[3] Other paleontologists agree with that and note that whenever a museum erects a new skeleton or bring in an animatronic model, visitor numbers go up. "Jurassic Park and King Kong would not have been the same without it."[4] In the public mind, T. rex sets the standard of what a dinosaur should be.[5] Science writer Riley Black similarly states, "In all of prehistory, there is no animal that commands our attention quite like Tyrannosaurus rex, the tyrant lizard king. Since the time this dinosaur was officially named in 1905, the enormous carnivore has stood as the ultimate dinosaur."[6]
Tyrannosaurus was first discovered by paleontologist Barnum Brown in the badlands of Hell Creek, Montana, in 1902 and has since been frequently represented in film and on television, in literature, on the Internet and in many kinds of games. Brown himself, despite having discovered many other prehistoric animals for the American Museum of Natural History before and after, always referred to Tyrannosaurus rex as "my favorite child".[7] In Brown's own words, Tyrannosaurus rex was indeed "king of the period and monarch of its race... He is now the dominant figure in the Cretaceous Hall to awe and inspire young boys when they grow up."[8]
General impact
On finding Tyrannosaurus, Barnum Brown wrote to Henry Fairfield Osborn, his employer and the President of the American Museum of Natural History, "Quarry No. 1 contains the [...] bones of a large Carnivorous Dinosaur, not described by Marsh. [...] I have never seen anything like it from the Cretaceous."[9] On realizing that the find was unlike anything ever found before, Osborn, according to Robert Bakker, "sat down to construct a name that expressed the position of Mr. Rex in the ecosystem, this apex of carnivory. The name has to be evocative, it has to be beautiful, it has to be lyrical. You hear it once,[citation needed] you remember it. [...] Tyrant. Lizard. King. Beautiful, short, you hear it once,[citation needed] you remember it and it can be abbreviated. T. rex."
Osborn and his Museum of Natural History had for years been in competition with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and its famous Diplodocus skeleton, "Dippy" and had wanted something even greater for his own museum. With Brown's discovery of "the monster," Osborn's museum had its prize.[10] He stated in 1905,[11]
I propose to make this animal the type of the new genus, Tyrannosaurus, in reference to its size, which far exceeds that of any carnivorous land animal hitherto described...This animal is in fact the ne plus ultra of the evolution of the large carnivorous dinosaurs: in brief it is entitled to the royal and high sounding group name which I have applied to it.
Tyrannosaurus gained widespread public attention on December 30, 1905, when the New York Times hailed T. rex as "the most formidable fighting animal of which there is any record whatever," the "king of all kings in the domain of animal life," "the absolute warlord of the earth," and a "royal man-eater of the jungle."[12] In 1906, Tyrannosaurus was dubbed the "prize fighter of antiquity" and the "Last of the Great Reptiles and the King of Them All."[13]
In 1927, Charles R. Knight painted a mural incorporating Tyrannosaurus facing a Triceratops in the Field Museum of Natural History,[14] establishing the two dinosaurs as enemies in popular thought;[15] paleontologist Phil Currie cites this mural as one of his inspirations to study dinosaurs.[11] Bakker said of the imagined rivalry between Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, "No matchup between predator and prey has ever been more dramatic. It's somehow fitting that those two massive antagonists lived out their co-evolutionary belligerence through the very last days of the very last epoch of the Age of Dinosaurs."[15]
Since then, popular culture has consistently depicted Tyrannosaurs as "King of the Dinosaurs" for decades. Portrayals have ranged from serving as an antagonist against whom human heroes could test their courage to an awe inspiring symbol of power, analogous to the lion's depiction as "King of the Beasts". One author goes so far as to state that it was T. rex more than any other dinosaur, that secured the place of dinosaurs in pop culture. "It is no exaggeration to say that only a slice of the more than five million people who come to visit the collection of the American Museum each year would bother at all if not if it were not for the one[citation needed] specimen: the Tyrannosaurus rex."[16]
According to paleontologist and museum curator Mark Norell, Barnum Brown's successor at the American Museum of Natural History, Tyrannosaurus rex, "continues to be a subject of fascination, a popular icon, and probably the first dinosaur name imprinted in the minds of children globally. Besides all this, it is the inspiration for budding paleontologists worldwide. Long may the king reign."[17]
Tyrannosaurus rex has played a major role in many films, starting in 1918 with The Ghost of Slumber Mountain, written and directed by stop motion special effects pioneer Willis O'Brien.[18]The Ghost of Slumber Mountain is also, and most likely, the first film showing Tyrannosaurus facing Triceratops.
However, while Ghost was the first of O'Brien's works to feature the dinosaur it was not the last time he would use the dinosaur, using it again in 1925, with the classic adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World. Tyrannosaurus fossils were not so famous at the time of the publication of the novel (1912), and the only main villain dinosaur in the book was Allosaurus, with no appearance of Tyrannosaurus, but this 1925 film featured Tyrannosaurus anyway, for a more dramatic and spectacular effect. For his part, Bakker commented that "Willis O'Brien was a scholarly man, anatomically literate he went to the American museum, he saw the skeletons, he thought about them, he saw Knight's paintings and the sculptures. He listened to Osborn's ideas and although T. rex has a bit part in the movie, T. rex influence is huge."[19]
Promotional photo of a Tyrannosaurus battling King Kong (1933)
O'Brien was again responsible for special effects in the 1933 monster movie King Kong, which featured a climactic battle between the giant ape and a Tyrannosaurus. This scene is credited with the film's success both in terms of cinematic experience and in securing financial backing. In a 2005 tongue in cheekmockumentary, "T. Rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood," no one less than Kong himself explained why. "Well, I had to find a suitably impressive monster to showoff my great strength and ruthlessness. There was only one real choice!" [20]
In real life, film historian and Kong scholar Ray Morton agreed with the previous statement. According to Morton, RKO film studio wanted to halt production on King Kong on account of it going over budget. Merian C Cooper, Kong's creator, then showed the studio heads a 20 minute test reel he and his team had made. The footage was of T. Rex's fight with Kong and was this scene that convinced the studio heads that the film had to be made, regardless of costs.[21]
O'Brien had not originally meant to create Kong, instead seeking to make a film about a lost island of dinosaurs wherein the T. rex would have featured in the climax. When this film, Creation was cancelled, O'Brien used the T. rex model he had made and reused it (along with other dinosaur models) for King Kong. The Tyrannosaurus model was made using a cast based on an early painting by Charles R. Knight. O'Brien stated that the battle between Kong and the Tyrannosaurus was one of the most technically difficult scenes in the film to animate. Many early films depicted Tyrannosaurus with an upright posture based on the current thinking of the time. Most of these films inaccurately portrayed the dinosaur with three prominent fingers on each hand like Allosaurus (though Tyrannosaurus had a third, vestigial finger, it would not have been noticeable at first glance);[22]Walt Disney is reported to have informed dinosaur hunter Barnum Brown that "it looked better that way", and the creature was depicted as such as in the Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring segment in the Walt Disney 1940 animated film Fantasia. Since that time, T. rex has appeared in a great number of "monster" films and educational documentaries.[11] One of the first appearances which portrayed a proper posture and anatomy of Tyrannosaurus is the 1984 short Prehistoric Beast,[23] fully conceived and made by Phil Tippett by means of his so-called go motion technique.
One of the most iconic depictions of Tyrannosaurus in film was in 1993's Jurassic Park, where dinosaurs, including T. rex, are brought back to life using blood from fossilized mosquitoes. In the film, the dinosaur breaks free of its theme park enclosure, and proceeds to roam the park after attacking the visitors and killing one (a lawyer). In the film's finale, the Tyrannosaurus (also known as Rexy by fans) indirectly saves the main characters by killing the Velociraptors, who had been hunting them through the visitor center. The popularity of T. rex has long had a reciprocal effect on dinosaur science; the popularity of Jurassic Park factored into the discovery of the dinosaur genusScipionyx; fossils of this genus had lain in storage in a basement in Italy until the film's release attracted attention from the fossil owner.[24] Two Tyrannosaurus appeared again as main antagonists in The Lost World, the sequel to Jurassic Park. In Jurassic Park III, it appeared briefly in a confrontation against the main antagonist, Spinosaurus, only to be killed by it. The same Tyrannosaurus from the original 1993 film reappears as the climactic protagonist in Jurassic World (2015), making an entrance by smashing through a Spinosaurus skeleton. In a battle, it defeats the Indominus rex, with the assistance of a Velociraptor, dubbed "Blue," and a Mosasaurus. This Tyrannosaurus reappears again in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World: Dominion.
Tyrannosaurus is one of the three dinosaur types whose physical characteristics were combined by the designers at Toho, to create the Japanese monster Godzilla; the other two dinosaurs were Stegosaurus and Iguanodon.
Dinosaur Island, 2014, features a feathered Tyrannosaurus, reflecting a more modern understanding of the dinosaurs' appearance.
Television appearances
Tyrannosaurus has starred in several television series, including children's programs, both in those intended as fiction, and, more recently, documentaries.
In the American children's show Barney & Friends, Barney is a stylized Tyrannosaurus rex. In the Australian children's show The Wiggles, the character "Dorothy the Dinosaur" is a stylized adaptation of a Tyrannosaurus. Some Tyrannosaurus characters appear in Dinosaur Train, most prominently Buddy.
In 1985, the 1984 Prehistoric Beast short was served to Robert Guenette to direct a full length TV documentary titled Dinosaur!, for which Phil Tippett made new Tyrannosaurus go motion sequences (chasing Hadrosaurus) in addition to those he made for Prehistoric Beast (where Tyrannosaurus was chasing Monoclonius).
In the 1985 anime Transformers the popular Autobot, Grimlock, transformed into a mechanical Tyrannosaurus and in later incarnations a "Megaraptor". In the sequel series, Beast Wars, Megatron, the leader of the Predacons, turned into a techno-organic Tyrannosaurus.
In the cartoon The Terrible Thunderlizards, 'Mr. T' plays a Tyrannosaurus rex called Mr. T-rex. General Galapagos, the boss of the Thunderlizards, is also a Tyrannosaurus.
The T-rex plays recurring supporting roles in Dinosaurs (Roy Hess, Earl Sinclair's closest friend and the Sinclairs' neighbor), Dinosaucers (Genghis Rex, who is the leader of the Evil Tyrannos), Extreme Dinosaurs (T-Bone, the leader of the heroic group of the same namesake) as well as the anime television series Dinozaurs (as "Dino Tyranno" and his short-lived evil counterpart "Drago Tyran").
In Land of the Lost a Tyrannosaurus rex played the villain in both the 1974 series (as "Grumpy") and the 1991 version (as "Scarface", who had a scar covering his right eye).
In the Ben 10 episode "Washington B.C.", Dr. Animo brings back a Tyrannosaurus with its skeleton.
In Dino-Riders, the main villain Lord Krulos uses a Tyrannosaurus as his mount.
In the Japanese TV series Dinosaur War Izenborg, a Tyrannosaurus named Ururu (renamed "Tyrannus" in the US re-edit Attack of the Super Monsters) served as the main villain for the first half of the series.
In the anime Dinosaur King, the main Tyrannosaurus is named Terry.
Literature
In literature, a dominant representation of Tyrannosaurus since 1990 has been that of Michael Crichton's, as seen in the novel Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World (homage title to the 1912 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, about scientists discovering a South American plateau where dinosaurs still exist). Its skeleton was also used to illustrate the covers of these books.
Full size animatronic Tyrannosaurus being assembled in Combe Martin Wildlife and Dinosaur Park, North Devon, United Kingdom.
Numerous models and children's toys depicting Tyrannosaurus have been produced, particularly in promotion of the Jurassic Park films. The Carnegie Museum Dinosaur Collection toy line released three versions of the dinosaur, with the second brought in line with more modern scientific understanding. Sinclair Oil ads from the 1950s frequently featured T. rex,[25] and products from radio-controlled helicopter models to a rifle cartridge (the .577 T-Rex) have been named after the dinosaur.[26] In music, the popular 1970s glam rock band T. Rex took their name from the famous dinosaur.
In Banjo-Tooie, Humba Wumba turns Banjo and Kazooie into a T. rex for 2 different growth stages in the world Terrydactyland.
In the F-Zero series of video games, F-Zero racer Bio Rex is a Tyrannosaurus whose machine is the Big Fang.
In the Calvin and Hobbes comics, fantasy sequences often featured Tyrannosaurus rex. In one story arc, in which Calvin writes a school paper on the T. rex predator/scavenger debate, he argues that T. rex was a predator because "They're so much cooler that way." T. rex is also featured as the protagonist in the long-running webcomicDinosaur Comics by Ryan North. Various T. rex have featured in stories published in the British comic 2000AD.
Ursula Dubosarsky's picture book, simply called Rex and illustrated by David Mackintosh, concerns a pet lizard that assumes the proportions of a T. rex in the imagination of a series of children.[27]
In Pokémon Gold and Silver, the Pokémon Tyranitar is named after the Tyrannosaurus, while its design resembles Godzilla, which was inspired by T. rex. In Pokémon X and Y, there is an evolution family consisting of Tyrunt and Tyrantrum both of which are based on Tyrannosaurus.[28] Their bodies are differently colored.
Tyrannosaurus rex was also one of the first superheroes in Marvel Comics series.[29]
Former WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon had a T. Rex skull hanging on his wall, a gift from his son-in-law Triple H.[30] The skull is prominently visible whenever WWE programming films in his office, such as during the 2020 edition of Money in the Bank.[31]
Tyrannosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The type species Tyrannosaurus rex, often called T. rex or colloquially T-Rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It lived throughout what is now western North America, on what was then an island continent known as Laramidia. Tyrannosaurus had a much wider range than other tyrannosaurids. Fossils are found in a variety of rock formations dating to the Maastrichtian age of the Upper Cretaceous period, 72.7 to 66 million years ago. It was the last known member of the tyrannosaurids and among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
Tyrannosauridae is a family of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs that comprises two subfamilies containing up to thirteen genera, including the eponymous Tyrannosaurus. The exact number of genera is controversial, with some experts recognizing as few as three. All of these animals lived near the end of the Cretaceous Period and their fossils have been found only in North America and Asia.
John Robert Horner is an American paleontologist most famous for describing Maiasaura, providing the first clear evidence that some dinosaurs cared for their young. In addition to his paleontological discoveries, Horner served as the technical advisor for the first five Jurassic Park films, had a cameo appearance in Jurassic World, and served as a partial inspiration for one of the lead characters of the franchise, Dr. Alan Grant. Horner studied at the University of Montana, although he did not complete his degree due to undiagnosed dyslexia, and was awarded a Doctorate in Science honoris causa. He retired from Montana State University on July 1, 2016, although he claims to have been pushed out of the Museum of the Rockies after having married an undergraduate student and now teaches as a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University.
Robert Thomas Bakker is an American paleontologist who helped reshape modern theories about dinosaurs, particularly by adding support to the theory that some dinosaurs were endothermic (warm-blooded). Along with his mentor John Ostrom, Bakker was responsible for initiating the ongoing "dinosaur renaissance" in paleontological studies, beginning with Bakker's article "Dinosaur Renaissance" in the April 1975 issue of Scientific American. His specialty is the ecological context and behavior of dinosaurs.
The Valley of Gwangi is a 1969 American fantasy Western film produced by Charles H. Schneer and Ray Harryhausen, directed by Jim O'Connolly, written by William Bast, and starring James Franciscus, Richard Carlson, and Gila Golan.
Gregory Scott Paul is an American freelance researcher, author and illustrator who works in paleontology. He is best known for his work and research on theropod dinosaurs and his detailed illustrations, both live and skeletal. Professionally investigating and restoring dinosaurs for three decades, Paul received an on-screen credit as dinosaur specialist on Jurassic Park and Discovery Channel's When Dinosaurs Roamed America and Dinosaur Planet. He is the author and illustrator of Predatory Dinosaurs of the World (1988), The Complete Illustrated Guide to Dinosaur Skeletons (1996), Dinosaurs of the Air (2001), The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (2010), Gregory S. Paul's Dinosaur Coffee Table Book (2010), The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs: 2nd Edition (2016), The Princeton Field Guide to Pterosaurs (2022), The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles (2022) and editor of The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs (2000).
Barnum Brown, commonly referred to as Mr. Bones, was an American paleontologist. Named after the circus showman P. T. Barnum, he discovered the first documented remains of Tyrannosaurus during a career that made him one of the most famous fossil hunters working from the late Victorian era into the early 20th century.
Cultural depictions of dinosaurs have been numerous since the word dinosaur was coined in 1842. The non-avian dinosaurs featured in books, films, television programs, artwork, and other media have been used for both education and entertainment. The depictions range from the realistic, as in the television documentaries from the 1990s into the first decades of the 21st century, or the fantastic, as in the monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s.
T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous is a 1998 American educational adventure film shot for the IMAX 3D format. The film is directed by Brett Leonard. Executive producer/co-writer Andrew Gellis and producers Antoine Compin and Charis Horton also make up the production team. Liz Stauber and Peter Horton star, alongside Kari Coleman, Tuck Milligan, and Laurie Murdoch. When a museum accident transports teenager Ally Hayden on an adventure back in time, she explores the terrain and territory of life-sized dinosaurs, even during a nose-to-nose encounter with a female Tyrannosaurus. The film is among the few IMAX films that are considered "pure entertainment", though it still is considered rather educational by the mainstream audience.
Stegosaurus is one of the most recognizable types among cultural depictions of dinosaurs. It has been depicted on film, in cartoons, comics, as children's toys, as sculpture, and even was declared the state dinosaur of Colorado in 1982. Stegosaurus is a subject for inclusion in dinosaur toy and scale model lines, such as the Carnegie Collection.
Tyrannosaurinae is one of the two extinct subfamilies of Tyrannosauridae, a family of coelurosaurian theropods that consists of at least three tribes and several genera. All fossils of these genera have been found in the Late Cretaceous deposits of western North America and east Asia. Compared to the related subfamily Albertosaurinae, tyrannosaurines overall are more robust and larger though the alioramins were gracile by comparison. This subfamily also includes the oldest known tyrannosaurid genus Lythronax as well as the youngest and most famous member of the group, Tyrannosaurus rex. There were at least 30 different species of tyrannosaurines.
Sue is the nickname given to FMNH PR 2081, which is one of the largest, most extensive, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever found, at over 90 percent recovered by bulk. FMNH PR 2081 was discovered on August 12, 1990, by American explorer and fossil collector Sue Hendrickson, and was named after her.
"Stan", also known by its inventory number BHI 3033, is a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil found in the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota, just outside of Buffalo in 1987, and excavated in 1992. It is the fifth most complete T. rex fossil discovered to date, at more than 70% bulk. In October 2020, the fossil was sold for $31.8 million at auction, making it the most expensive dinosaur specimen and fossil ever sold. In March 2022 Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism stated that they had acquired Stan and were planning on displaying the fossil at a new museum of natural history scheduled to open in 2025.
Tyrannosaurus is one of the most iconic dinosaurs and is known from numerous specimens, some of which have individually acquired notability due to their scientific significance and media coverage.
Dinosaur! is a 1985 American television documentary film about dinosaurs. It was first broadcast in the United States on November 5, 1985, on CBS. Directed by Robert Guenette and written by Steven Paul Mark, Dinosaur! was hosted by the American actor Christopher Reeve, who some years before had played the leading role of Superman.
Prehistoric Beast is a ten-minute-long experimental animated feature film conceived, supervised and directed by Phil Tippett in 1984. This sequence is the first film produced by the Tippett Studio, founded by Tippett. Made with the go motion animation technique, scenes from Prehistoric Beast were included in the 1985 full-length documentary Dinosaur!, first aired on CBS in the United States on November 5, 1985.
The feeding behaviour of Tyrannosaurus rex has been studied extensively. The well known attributes of T. rex are often interpreted to be indicative of either a predatory or scavenging lifestyle, and as such the biomechanics, feeding strategies and diet of Tyrannosaurus have been subject to much research and debate.
Suskityrannus is a genus of small tyrannosauroid theropod from the Late Cretaceous in southern Laramidia. It contains a single species, Suskityrannus hazelae, believed to have lived roughly 92 million years ago. The type specimen was found in the Turonian-age Moreno Hill Formation of the Zuni Basin in western New Mexico.
This timeline of tyrannosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the tyrannosaurs, a group of predatory theropod dinosaurs that began as small, long-armed bird-like creatures with elaborate cranial ornamentation but achieved apex predator status during the Late Cretaceous as their arms shrank and body size expanded. Although formally trained scientists did not begin to study tyrannosaur fossils until the mid-19th century, these remains may have been discovered by Native Americans and interpreted through a mythological lens. The Montana Crow tradition about thunder birds with two claws on their feet may have been inspired by isolated tyrannosaurid forelimbs found locally. Other legends possibly inspired by tyrannosaur remains include Cheyenne stories about a mythical creature called the Ahke, and Delaware stories about smoking the bones of ancient monsters to have wishes granted.
References
↑ Bakker, Robert (2000). "Prologue". In Fiffer S (ed.). Tyrannosaurus Sue. New York: W. H. Freeman & Company. pp.xi–xiv. ISBN0-7167-4017-6.
↑ Lowell Dingus and Mark Norell, Barnum Brown: The Man who discovered Tyrannosaurs rex, (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010, pg 94)
↑ Gregory S. Paul, Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988) pg 344
↑ David Hone, The Tyrannosaur Chronicles, (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016) pg 23
↑ Mark Norell, The World of Dinosaurs: An Illustrated Tour. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2019 pg 72
↑ David K. Randell. The Monster's Bones: The Discovery of the T. Rex and How It Shook Our World (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2022), pages 160-161
1 2 3 John "Jack" Horner and Don "Dino" Lessem, The Complete T. Rex (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), pages 58–62
1 2 Bakker, R.T. 1986. The Dinosaur Heresies. New York: Kensington Publishing, p. 240. On that page, Bakker has his own T. rex/Triceratops fight.
↑ David K. Randell. The Monster's Bones: The Discovery of the T. Rex and How It Shook Our World (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2022), pages xiv-xv
↑ Mark Norell, The World of Dinosaurs: An Illustrated Tour. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2019 pg 77
↑ T. rex did not actually feature in the book, but O'Brien made sure there was a role for him in the film, T. rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood (2005 documentary)
↑ Poling, Jeff (1998). "Skippy the dinosaur". Journal of Dinosaur Paleontology. Archived from the original on February 4, 2007. Retrieved March 1, 2007.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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