Paleontologists Stunning Conclusion: 2.5 Billion T. Rexes Roamed North America Over the Cretaceous Period

SciTechDaily ^ | 4/15/2021 | UC Berkeley

[Songcraft]

Many of them seemed to be particularly partial to running around in the Chicago area at night (especially on the weekends).

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Fake News! ;)

You know how sometimes you wished you lived in simpler times, like maybe the 40’s after the war, or even as a sod-buster on the Prairie, kind of Laura Ingalls Wilder - without the smallpox, bloodthirsty Indians and your sister going blind? ;)

Of all the times to have lived in History, I wonder why nobody wishes they had lived during the Cretaceous period?

*SNORT*

[Teacher317]

China+India = more than 1/3rd of humans currently alive

(And that circle is about 50% ocean)

[PIF]

If you believe this Paleo-nonsense you couldn’t have thrown a rock back then without hitting a T-Rex.

—
And if you had thrown a rock at one, the one behind you would have snagged your arm and ...

[moovova]

Makes Jurassic Park look like a piker.

[libertylover]

about 20,000 adult T. rexes probably lived at any one time, give or take a factor of 10,

So, the real guess is between 2,000 and 200,000. Pretty much a SWAG.

Until now, no one has been able to compute population numbers ... and [someone] felt that it couldn’t be done.

First you take a SWAG, then you learn to multiply, and viola!!!, you're an expert!!! I wonder how much these people get paid for this "science".

[sageburn]

No, their arms got short as they evolved and became adept at not picking up restaurant tabs.

[Nateman]

...T-Rex did not need arms to choke the prey.

Imagine a tiger with stubby little arms. Not much of a tiger now is it? Those big T-Rex jaws were for busting open big bones.

[Terry L Smith]

That means there had to be at least 9 Trillion animals of prey just for their palate!!
(2.5b x 365 days)

[Nateman]

Dead dinosaurs have awfully big bones with lots of tasty stuff inside just waiting to get eaten. Big powerful jaws made those bones into good eating .

[Levy78]

Tons of chickens.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Proof:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h59lUTbuE1I

[odawg]

“Dead dinosaurs have awfully big bones with lots of tasty stuff inside just waiting to get eaten. Big powerful jaws made those bones into good eating,”

You have it backwards. The flesh of dinosaurs was on the outside and the bones were the supporting frames with only the guts inside the ribs. Much more flesh than bones.

[null and void]

80,000,000 years, 2,500,000,000 critters, an average of 31.25 critter per year, spread over all of the US and Canada?

Call it 7.7 million square miles.

Each T Rex has roughly a quarter million square miles to roam.

I’m stuned...

[null and void]

Bingo!

[entropy12]

Amazing pictorial statement!

[Nateman]

Much more flesh than bones.

For a scavenger bones are the thing because the rest has usually been picked over.

[entropy12]

Front paws of the tiger is always his first strike at the pray. It is never the bite, first. So tiger needs strong front legs.

T-Rex on the other hand had those enormously big hind legs. My guess is he could run on 2 hind legs something like a kangaroo, and when he caught up with the pray, one bite of that long jaw with 6” long sabre teeth would instantly kill the pray.

A scavenger has no need for such long and strong hind legs. A hyena is the premier scavenger in Africa and looks more like a dog than T-Rex.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Imagine a tiger with stubby little arms. Not much of a tiger now is it? Those big T-Rex jaws were for busting open big bones.

There's no evidence that forelimbs are needed to be an efficient predator. Snakes bring down prey just fine without them, and predators from wolves to weasels bring down their prey with their teeth and jaws. Cats with their retractable claws do make full use of their forelimbs in subduing prey, but it's hardly a requirement for a predator.

I'd guess T-Rex was (like most carnivores) both a predator and a scavenger, depending on what was available. No carnivore is going to choose to try to subdue living prey when a dead carcass is available.

[UNGN]

Eagles aren’t scavengers and they don’t have arms. There were herds of short legged, fat gravers that were popping out of clutches of 50 eggs at a time and with double the foliage density of today (CO2 was over 2X) and 50% more oxygen, the plant eaters grew muscle fast.