Scientists discover world’s heaviest Tyrannosaurus rex

Mar 28, 2019

By Herb Scribner

A Canada fossil site just found the heaviest Tyrannosaurus rex specimen ever found, and it apparently weighed 19,500 pounds.

The dinosaur fossil skeleton is about 65 percent complete and includes a skull and hips with ribs, leg bones and tail bones, according to the findings, which were published in The Anatomical Record last week.

The T. rex, called “Scotty,” was a senior among the species at 28 years old and lived about 68 million years ago.

The dinosaur has a broken and healed rib. There’s also a bone growth between two of Scotty’s teeth, which would be a sign of infection, National Geographic reports.

“It was not an easy life, even for the king of predatory dinosaurs, judging by all these injuries,” says Nizar Ibrahim, a paleontologist at the University of Detroit Mercy who wasn’t involved with the study, according to National Geographic.

Why it matters: “The find suggests that large predatory dinosaurs probably got older and bigger than paleontologists would have surmised based on currently available fossils. Among the known species, T. rex is one of the best represented extinct dinosaurs, with more than 20 fossil individuals identified,” according to National Geographic.

“Its incredible size would have made the animal an intimidating sight, but it might not have used its raw power to actively hunt prey,” according to BGR. “There’s plenty of debate in scientific circles regarding how the T. rex species lived, and it’s possible that massive beasts like Scotty were more comfortable sampling dead carcasses than running down or ambushing their own meals.”