Tyrannosaurus rex (or T. rex), whose name means "Tyrant lizard king", is a species of large predatory theropod dinosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous period around 73–66 million years ago.
One appeared as the main antagonist of the 1940Disney animated feature film Fantasia in The Rite of Spring segment and has been featured in numerous other Disney properties.
The Tyrannosaurus was portrayed as a huge dark blue/purple/gray carnivorous dinosaur with a big square head and a mouth full of long, razor-sharp teeth. The one in Fantasia is incorrectly shown with three fingers, while the actual dinosaur only had two. Walt Disney himself knew that the real Tyrannosaurus had only two fingers, but thought a three-fingered portrayal would look scarier. In other appearances, Tyrannosaurus is often depicted as being colored red, brown, or gray and is portrayed correctly with two fingers.
Real life
In real life, Tyrannosaurus rex, weighing 5–15 tons and measuring 40–50 feet (12–15 meters) long, belonged to a genus of theropod dinosaurs aptly named the tyrannosauridae that lived in the Campanian to Maastarichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous Period, about 80–66 million years ago. Thus, it did not coexist with any species of Stegosaurus, which lived in the Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic Period, from 156–145 million years ago. This puts a gap between the two species that is larger than the one that separates Tyrannosaurus from humans. In the southwestern part of its range, Tyrannosaurus rex did encounter the giant sauropod Alamosaurus, a titanosaur that was one of the largest dinosaurs that ever existed, being roughly 110 feet long and well over 70 tons, so its being portrayed as living alongside sauropods in Fantasia and other Disney films and series is not inaccurate. Unlike in Fantasia, Tyrannosaurus rex did not have three fingers; it only had two. Why it was portrayed with such an inaccuracy is because Walt Disney reported to Barnum Brown, the discoverer of Tyrannosaurus rex, that it looked scarier that way. If that wasn't enough, at the time of its discovery, Barnum Brown and his superior at the American Museum of Natural History, Henry Fairfield Osborn, had no complete skeleton of Tyrannosaurus, instead using pieces replicated from the bones of Allosaurus to fill in the missing portions of the skeleton. Additionally, at the time, two-fingered hands had not been known in Tyrannosaurus rex, with the discovery only being proven for certain in the 1990s. It has also been suggested that the Tyrannosaurus may have had feathers along its back, neck, and head, just as many other dinosaurs were proven to have feathers due to discoveries from China regarding smaller relatives, such as the 2-meter (6 feet) Dilong paradoxus and the 9-meter (30 feet) Yutyrannus. However, due to the fact that larger animals retain body heat better than smaller animals and skin impressions found from some Tyrannosaurus specimens, the current theory and consensus is that Tyrannosaurus was purely scaly, due to its ancestors having lost feathers as they grew larger over their evolution to prevent overheating.
Two species of Tyrannosaurus are confirmed to exist as of 2024; the more famous Tyrannosaurus rex itself, and Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis, which was described in early 2024 and lived 5 to 7 million years earlier than T. rex in the state of New Mexico, in the USA. T. mcraeensis had a slimmer jaw, less prominent chin, and smaller horns than T. rex, but was about the same size as its later cousin, or about 40 feet (12 meters) long.
It has also been discovered that Tyrannosaurus rex underwent the most extreme changes in growth as it aged of any dinosaur genus: Tyrannosaurus juveniles had long, narrow snouts and sharp, blade-like teeth for cutting and slicing meat unlike their bone-crushing parents. Tyrannosaurus also had longer and slimmer legs as a juvenile for better running in pursuit of fast prey. The difference between the adults and juveniles is so extreme that they were and are still occasionally thought to be two separate animals, with juveniles sometimes classified as a separate genus called Nanotyrannus, a controversy that makes things difficult due to how scarce fossils from juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex are (only four good specimens compared to the 50+ adult skeletons found). Growth rate studies also indicate that Tyrannosaurus could halt its growth when food was scarce, and that it lived to a maximum age of thirty years due to its rough lifestyle. However, some evidence submitted in 2022 suggested that the oldest individual Tyrannosaurus may have been able to reach forty years of age, and that they had cognitive abilities on par with primates, such as baboons. However, baboon-level intelligence in T. rex was later disproven after careful scrutiny, and it is suggested that the dinosaur's intelligence was equal to a crocodile instead. It wasn't until the age of 16–18 years that Tyrannosaurus also began to grow more robust and gain its characteristic appearance as an adult. Eggs have never been found for Tyrannosaurus rex, though babies of close relatives, like Tarbosaurus, have been described. Embryo fossils from close relatives in Montana suggest the eggs of Tyrannosaurus may have been soft and leathery, like snake and lizard eggs.
Additionally, Tyrannosaurus rex did not walk upright with its tail on the ground, but stood horizontally with its tail sticking out straight behind it. Tyrannosaurus did, however, as many media depictions and films accurately show, have a strong, powerful bite that could crush bone. Though Tyrannosaurus has also been shown as a fast predator in many media, its top speed has recently been calculated at 11–17 mph, due to the fact that it needed to speed-walk to prevent its legs from breaking when chasing prey. Despite this, it has been calculated that Tyrannosaurus was a capable and extremely energy-efficient endurance hunter, stalking prey for miles at a relaxed pace until catching up with animals, such as Triceratops and Edmontosaurus, before using a quick burst of speed to ambush, overtake, and kill its prey. After eating, it likely would not have needed another meal for some time due to its lower energy needs compared to other carnivorous dinosaurs, such as Allosaurus. In many films, T. rex is also depicted as having useless arms, but in truth, each arm could lift two grown men each. What its arms were used for, however, remains to be seen, but many theories indicate that its arms were probably useful for holding prey or perhaps in attracting mates. Fossil footprints and arm prints suggest the arms may have been helpful in getting the dinosaur up out of a resting position.
Studies in 2016 have suggested that Tyrannosaurus likely did not actually roar, but most likely made a sound that was quieter and much more unsettling. Scientists discovered that Tyrannosaurus had extremely sensitive hearing after scanning the braincase of the skull, which contained outlines of the inner ears. The analysis revealed that the dinosaur was very good at picking up low frequency sounds. Thus, it is more likely that Tyrannosaurus would have made sounds similar to the low frequency bellows of crocodiles, alligators, and deep-booming birds, like bitterns and ostriches. Additional studies of Tyrannosaurus rex's inner ears in 2021 also suggests it was diurnal; hunting by daylight when its keen vision was most effective. Population estimates also suggest that there may have been upwards of 20,000 adult Tyrannosaurus living in Western North America at any one time, and that throughout the 2 million years it existed during the end of the cretaceous, there may have been as many as 2.5 billion individual T. rex, though the experts that made the study stress this estimate could be on the lower side. Allometric analysis (estimations of mass using the leg bones) done in July, 2024 also has suggested that the very largest adult Tyrannosaurus (one in every 100,000) could have grown to as big as 50 feet (15 meters) with an estimated weight of over 17 tons, or 15,000 kg. This study may also be an underestimation, as other studies using volumetric calculations have proven more accurate. Regardless, the same study also suggests there was no real difference in size between male and female Tyrannosaurus, unlike in some living relatives, such as alligators and crocodiles. Additionally, Tyrannosaurus is one of the few dinosaurs for which gender has been determined for some specimens; one notable specimen, MOR 1125 a.k.a. "B-Rex", was suggested to be a female based on the presence of soft medullary tissue, which dinosaurs and the descendants, modern birds, develop in their bones when pregnant or laying eggs.
Many adult specimens of Tyrannosaurus also showed terrible injuries that healed well, suggesting it had a strong immune system and powerful healing abilities like in modern birds and crocodiles. Many of these broken bones are the result of fights with other Tyrannosaurus or with prey. The specimen known as "Sue", on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, had broken and re-healed ribs, a fractured and healed leg, three fused vertebrae in its tail, and holes in its jaws that suggest it was bitten by another Tyrannosaurus with the wounds later becoming infected, leading to the holes in its jaw becoming bigger. Another specimen, nicknamed "Stan" had a hole in its brain case from a bite by another Tyrannosaurus. Regrowth of bone showed this Tyrannosaurus survived the near-fatal wound. The juvenile specimen "Jane" of the Burpee Museum in Illinois also had bite marks to its snout that suggest a fight over food, dominance, or territory.
The Tyrannosaurus makes its first appearance as it attacks the dinosaurs of the lowlands. They all stare in horror in its general direction as rain begins to fall and lightning crackles when the massive theropod enters the scene. They immediately continue to retreat in fear as the Tyrannosaurus marches forward, snapping its jaws at anything that moves. While many of the smaller dinosaurs are able to retreat out of the hungry theropod's path, the Stegosaurus is unable to move away fast enough and is quickly targeted. The Tyrannosaurus latches its brawny jaws around the Stegosaurus' tail just above the spikes, dragging its heels into the mud and bringing the lumbering dinosaur's retreat to a suspenseful halt. The Stegosaurus faces its attacker who roars violently and quickly goes for the neck with its thick square jaws. In defense, the Stegosaurus lashes out with its spiked tail, trying desperately to keep the hungry theropod at bay. After a few brief offensive and defensive volleys by the two titans, they begin to slowly sidestep each other. A short yet vicious battle ensues, and the Stegosaurus is quickly unable to stay on its feet as the Tyrannosaurus repeatedly goes for the neck, fighting hard against the defending tail spikes of its prey. With the battle won and its prey fallen, the Tyrannosaurus lets out a mighty roar in victory as the other dinosaurs watch. With the struggle over and the predator satisfied, the other dinosaurs return to their business as the Tyrannosaurus gorges on its prize.
Near the end of the segment, the Tyrannosaurus makes an appearance just before it goes extinct. The once mighty ruler of the Cretaceous succumbs to mass dehydration as the Earth's climate changes, visibly collapsing into the sand. Other dinosaurs, including a Parasaurolophus and Ceratosaurus, pass the corpse and continue on into the hazed distance, a path that leads to nowhere but their own extinction.
It also makes a cameo in the sequel Fantasia 2000, fighting the Stegosaurus in a flashback from the original film.
Nessie talks about its ancestors, one of them being dinosaurs, and it knows the word dinosaur means "Terrible lizard", and a Tyrannosaurus rex is its great-great uncle.
A Tyrannosaurus rex makes an appearance at a big hole at the gymnasium and attacks three teenage boys named Sherman, Mike, and Vince. The boys fight the mighty dinosaur, and Mike blasts the T. rex right at its belly.
In the episode "Land of the Dinosaurs", Ariel finds frozen dinosaurs during a trip to the North Pole, and she thaws them with her father's trident. King Triton makes a refuge for them on land after some dinosaurs cause chaos. A Tyrannosaurus rex was among the dinosaurs that were causing havoc. There was a fight between a Tyrannosaurus and a Stegosaurus, almost certainly a reference to Fantasia.
In the episode "Jurassic Puck", a pair of T. rexes were one of the few dinosaurs brought to life by Lord Dragaunus from a test tube in the laboratory. They later started rampaging in Anaheim.
A Tyrannosaurus rex-like creature, christened "Skullasaurus" by Pooh and his friends, supposedly could be heard roaring inside Skullasaurus Cave as well as throughout the movie. However, the roaring was actually Pooh's rumbling tummy amplified by the echoes in the cave and by everyone's fears. When the creature was sighted, it was revealed to be Pooh's distorted reflection magnified through the cave's crystal walls, and Eyesore with a knot of tree rooks stuck on his head.
A brown Tyrannosaurus rex was the main antagonist of the episode "It's About Time!". When Phineas, Ferb, and Candace were trapped in the Mesozoic era, a T. rex chased them. They eventually lost it, but it found them again. When they were back in the present at the museum, the T. rex accidentally came with them. It then attempted to attack Candace, but Doof's Freezeanator hit it and froze it. When the T. rex was chasing Candace, the theme from Grumpy the T. rex from the 1974 television series Land of the Lost can be heard. The T. rex made a cameo in "Mom's Birthday" from a flashback. It made two more cameos in "Unfair Science Fair Redux (Another Story)" and "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo".
In the episode "Stitch vs. Hämsterviel Pt. I", Jumba builds a Tyrannosaurus rex-like robot called "Evilsaurus Rex" and uses said robot to do evil deeds for him; however, Stitch later reprograms Jumba's dinosaur robot to do good deeds instead.
In the episode "Land Before Swine", a number of dinosaur species are seen trapped in tree sap in the abandoned mines in the forest. The summer heat causes the tree sap to melt, slowly releasing all the dinosaurs from the sap. A T. rex was among the species of dinosaurs trapped in tree sap. One T. rex is later utilized by the rebels during Weirdmageddon as a part of the Mystery Shack robot.
In the episode "The Old Old West", Penn, Boone, and Sashi are zapped into the Dinosaur Cowboy World, a dimension with cowboys in the desert riding dinosaurs, where one of the dinosaurs being used for transportation is a Tyrannosaurus rex.
A T. rex skeleton along with its organic illustration makes a cameo in the opening of Season 3. In the episode "Fight at the Museum", another T. rex skeleton appears in a museum along with a Velociraptor statue. In the episode "Mr. X", a T. rex from a movie trailer appears on a screen inside the theater. In the episode "Froggy Little Christmas", a similar T. rex skeleton wearing a Santa hat appears among numerous Christmas decorations in the museum.
In the Kingdom Keepers book Disney After Dark, Maleficent brings the skeleton of the T. rex from Big Thunder to life. The dinosaur proceeds to chase Finn and Philby until it hits a wall and falls apart into a bone pile.
The Tyrannosaurus rex at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Tyrannosaurus rex is seen as the Disneyland train travels to the Primeval World diorama. In it, it is seen reenacting its battle from Fantasia. The T. rex and Stegosaurus are two of the last dinosaurs seen in the Primeval World diorama before the Disneyland train exits the tunnel to Main Street Station.
In the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom's version of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a T. rex skeleton is seen near the end of the ride. When the train makes a right-hand turn, it passes through the T. rex's ribcage as it hits the final trim brake. The area of Big Thunder in which this is located on is known as "Dinosaur Gap" within the ride's lore.
In Walt Disney World's Disney's Animal Kingdom, some Tyrannosaurus rexes can be found in the DinoLand, U.S.A. attraction. A bronze cast of the Tyrannosaurus skeleton of Sue can be found on the path to Countdown to Extinction, while bronze statues of Albertosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus bust can be found in the attraction's queue. This is because the T. rex was originally planned to be the main antagonist of the attraction before the Carnotaurus was decided to serve the role instead. The skeleton of the Carnotaurus in the queue is actually the modified mold of a T. rex skeleton.
In Walt Disney World's Epcot, there was a ride known as Ellen's Energy Adventure, starring Ellen DeGeneres and Bill Nye the Science Guy who explore the world of energy, including the use of fossil fuels. During the ride, Bill Nye brings DeGeneres "back in time" to the age of dinosaurs to explain the origin of fossil fuels. During this portion of the ride, several dinosaurs can be seen that are similar to the ones during Fantasia'sThe Rite of Spring. Most notably, there was a Tyrannosaurus attacking a Stegosaurus over a cliff. This is a reference to Fantasia.
In Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios, two different scenes of the Tyrannosaurus from The Rite of Spring (but with added sound effects) were each part of the original and updated versions of the third segment of the Feature Animation pavilion at The Magic of Disney Animation.
In real life, Tyrannosaurus rex and Stegosaurus would never have met, as Stegosaurus lived 80 million years early in the Jurassic period, while T. rex lived at the end of the Cretaceous period. For reference, humans lived closer to the Tyrannosaurus rex than the T. rex lived to any Stegosaurus.
During the production of DINOSAUR, called "Countdown to Extinction" at the time, original plans called for Tyrannosaurus rex, but Disney decided to incorporate the later newly-discovered Carnotaurus instead. Also, in the original story for Dinosaur conceived and pitched by Phil Tippett and Paul Verhoeven in 1988, the main antagonist was going to be a Tyrannosaurus named Grozni.
On Disc 1 of Disney's Dinosaur: 2-Disc Collector's Edition in Fossil Dig, the bonus feature called "3-D Workbook Opening Sequence" (from the animated sequence of the alternate film's opening) showed a meat-eating dinosaur that appeared to be a Tyrannosaurus rex, which was defiantly originally planned in the film's sequence before Carnotaurus was put in the movie instead. Additionally, on Disc 2, there are a few concept art images of the Tyrant Dinosaur in two sections: "Carnotaur Design" & "Unused Character Concepts".
You can see one of the early storyboard sequences of the T. rex originally planned for Dinosaur on the bonus video "Make your own Dinosaur: With Peter & Andrea Von Sholly" in the "Prehysteria!" section in 1993.
Christmas gag sketch of the Fantasia T. rex.
A Christmas gag sketch produced for Disney Studio's internal newsletter in 1939 featured the Tyrannosaurus from Fantasia in a Santa suit and nicknamed "Mr. S. Twombley Tyrannosaurusclauses".
At the beginning of the 1997 live-action film Mr. Magoo, a T. rex skull is briefly seen in the background. Due to the color and appearance of the skull, it was the specimen named Black Beauty that was discovered in Canada in 1981. Black Beauty, the T. rex, has been brought to the Royal Tyrrell Museum and is still there ever since its discovery.
Tyrannosaurus rex later gained more attention and popularity in popular culture after Steven Spielberg's 1993 blockbuster film Jurassic Park.
The Tyrannosaur sound effects from Jurassic Park where also used in a few Disney films and several Disney shows.
In 2022, two new additional Tyrannosaurus species were proposed: T. imperator (meaning the "Tyrant lizard emperor") and T. regina (meaning the "Tyrant lizard queen"). However, another study published in summer of 2022 found that this theory had little supporting evidence. Thus, Tyrannosaurus rex remained the single type species until 2024, when the newly discovered Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis was described from fossils in New Mexico, USA.
T. rex's cousin Daspletosaurus (meaning "Frightful lizard") has been known in a few species: D. torosus, D. horneri, and D. wilsoni.
In 2023, it has been confirmed that Tyrannosaurus have lips.
Though often seen as villainous due to its carnivorous lifestyle, most depictions of Tyrannosaurus rex in Disney media simply portray the dinosaur as simply a threat to be overcome or avoided, with notable exceptions to the rule.
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Tyrannosaurus Rex on Wikipedia
