There’s a brand new feature exhibit that just opened at Science World in Vancouver. You could say it’s of prehistoric proportions. As a lifelong dinosaur geek, I was absolutely thrilled to learn about T. rex: The Ultimate Predator. And I’m even more excited to share this excitement with both my kids too. Tyrannosaurus rex is quite possibly the best known dinosaur of them all. But, there are tons of misconceptions and lesser known facts about it too.
Like, did you know that the average life expectancy of a T. rex was about 28 years? And fuzzy feathers likely adorned its body, particularly when it was younger? There’s certainly more to the king of the tyrant lizards than you may have assumed.
Tyrannosaurus Rex: King of the Tyrant Lizards
Occupying the same Feature Gallery space as Backyard Adventures and Arctic Voices before it, T. rex: The Ultimate Predator transports visitors some 66 million years into the past to the late Cretaceous period. In the exhibit space, you’ll find life-sized models, fossil casts, educational displays, and plenty of opportunities to learn all about the prehistoric alpha predator.
Check out this huge ultra-wide projection with video of the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex roaming its natural habitat!
Organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, T. rex: The Ultimate Predator is presented by RBC and White Spot Restaurants. “There’s nothing more fearsome, and fascinating, than the T. rex,” said White Spot Restaurants President Warren Erhart. “When people walk through this exhibit, we think they are going to be able to imagine what it would be like to walk amongst the dinosaurs
The Life Cycle of a T. rex
See that fuzz? One of the more fascinating and original aspects of this feature exhibit is that we get to explore more of the T. rex’s life cycle. Many of us have seen — either in person or via books and movies — what we think a Tyrannosaurus rex looks like as an adult. What we get here, though, is the fuzzy hatchling, the slender adolescent, and the massive full grown adult.
The baby Tyrannosaurus rex looks a lot more bird-like, wouldn’t you say? Its mouth is more like a beak, almost, and the head makes me think of something like a wood duck.
Getting a sense of scale of the T. rex and its growth spurt really puts a lot of this into perspective. As the mighty predator grows up, it starts looking less bird-like and more fearsome. By age two, it’d be as large as other predator dinosaurs at the time. By adulthood, it would’ve weighed up to 15,500 pounds (7,000 kilograms), standing 12 feet tall and 40 feet long. And those 50 or 60 teeth? They’re up to 12 inches long.
Meet the Tyrannosaur Family
Here’s another common misconception. The Tyrannosaurus rex was a wholly unique alpha predator that stood on its own. That’s not true at all, as there’s a whole family of tyrannosaurids. “Rex” just happens to be the biggest and the furthest along the evolutionary tree. While at Science World, you’ll also see a life-size model of the Proceratosaurus bradleyi (far left), for instance.
Here, you see a Tarbosaurus bataar tooth and an Alioramus altai skull. You might also know about the Albertosaurus, which also lived in North America during the late Cretaceous period. Over in what is now China, we’d find the Dilong paradoxus, the first tyrannosaur found with fossilized feathers.
Learning More Fun T. rex Facts
“Investigation is an adventure of the imagination. Exploring how extinct dinosaurs may have looked and behaved at different stages of their lives is made by both investigating clues in fossils and inferential reasoning from observing animals alive today,” said Parker McLean, Curator at Science World.
“T. rex is a pop-culture icon and most of us have preconceptions of how this creature looked and behaved. The continuing process of discovering more fossils and new ways to observe them has advanced our understanding of this magnificent creature’s life from youth into adulthood and we are excited for this to be presented in the exhibition.”
Ready for some more quick facts?
- T. rex could pulverize and digest solid bone, as evidenced by its fossilized poop.
- That’s thanks to a bite with up to 7,800 pounds of force, equivalent to the weight of three cars.
- As you might have noticed above, the juvenile had relatively longer arms and a slimmer body, compared to the adult form.
- Even though the movies told us that it could “only see motion,” the T. rex likely had excellent vision. It had forward-facing, orange-sized eyes set further apart, making for superior depth perception.
Open Now at Science World Vancouver
Organized by the American Museum of Natural History (New York), T. rex: The Ultimate Predator runs from February 26, 2022 to January 22, 2023. Science World is open daily from 10am to 5pm; members enjoy early access at 9:30am every day. Visit scienceworld.ca for more information and to buy your tickets.
Disclosure: Science World (Vancouver) provided our family with complimentary admission for the purposes of creating this coverage. All opinions are my own.
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