Tyrannosaurus/Movie Canon

"We have a T. rex."

- John Hammond

Tyrannosaurus rex (tye-RAN-oh-SAWR-us-recks) is one of the most well-known of all dinosaurs. It is no longer considered the largest of the theropods. Tyrannosaurus was the last and largest of the Tyrannosaur family, or tyrant dinosaurs.

Like other tyrannosaurids, Tyrannosaurus had very short arms with only two fingers. Although these were probably nearly useless while hunting, its jaws were not: Tyrannosaurus has an enormous skull armed with teeth the size of bananas. Unlike the teeth of most theropods, the teeth of tyrannosaurids are very thick and capable of crushing bones. The skull and neck bones show that T. rex had the largest neck muscles of any meat-eating dinosaur. It probably used its strong neck to twist and pull off big chunks of meat that it grasped with its jaws. Tyrannosaurus could bite with extremely strong force - one fossilized skeleton shows that it crushed and swallowed the bones of a smaller plant-eating dinosaur.



Spelling
Tyrannosaurus rex is the only dinosaur of which the name's well known. For example, most people don't say Triceratops horridus or Stegosaurus armatus. However, most people don't know the spelling rules for scientific species names. This has caused Tyrannosaurus to be the most misspelled dinosaur name.

Michael Crichton called the creature Tyrannosaurus Rex, or for short T-Rex, in his novels. In most Jurassic Park media and film subtitles the creature is called T-Rex or T. Rex.

However popular, this spelling is wrong. Dinosaur names are created according to the rules of the. Binomial names consist of two parts. Tyrannosaurus is the genus name, while rex is the species name. Genus names must be written with a capital letter but the species name don't. In many cases the (mostly long names) are shortened. In that case, only the first letter of the Genus name is written. That letter is followed by a period, not a "-". All binomial nomenclatural taxon should be written in italics.

Therefore, the taxa be written like this:

or for short:
 * Tyrannosaurus rex
 * T. rex

The InGen Field Guide is one of the few pieces of Jurassic Park media that uses the right names. Although T-Rex is the most widely used spelling, Park Pedia shouldn't foster scientific illiteracy.

Portrayal
Note: This article deals with the creature seen in the Jurassic Park franchise, and may have some information that doesn't correspond to what information is available on the actual dinosaur.

Description and Statistics
Tyrannosaurus Rex is described as being capable of running as fast as 32 mph by John Hammond. As far as size goes, of the five Tyrannosaurs to prominently appear in the series, the adult female seen in the first film was 40 feet long and 16 feet tall, making her one of largest predators to appear in the Jurassic Park trilogy, although the size of the animatronic contradicts to this fact (see Events on Isla Nublar). The sub-adult male to appear in the third film was listed at 37 feet long and only about 10 feet tall at the hip (inaccurately measured at 14.5ft at the top of the skull, which is not a standard form measurement). The infant to appear in the second film appeared to be no more than 3 feet tall and just 6 feet long.

They display some sexual dimorphism. Males have more prominent lacrimal ridges than females. Males also have a tendency to have visible facial scaring (possibly due to battles over territory with other T. rex and carnivores or mates). Females are also brown in color than males, and somewhat larger. Males are slightly smaller than females, and are a molted green in color. They also have a large throat pouch that females seem to lack. Males are typically green ( male T. rexs in The Lost world: Jurassic Park and the sub-adult male in Jurassic Park III), while females are typically molted brown, (female T. rex in Jurassic Park, female T. rex in The Lost World.)

Eyesight Debate
Dr. Alan Grant states that the sight of Tyrannosaurus rex is based on movement, so if you don't move the animal won't see you. Alan Grant uses this knowledge to escape from the T. rex in the novel, and the first and third movies.

But, as stated (in the second novel) by Dr. Richard Levine, this is very unlikely because many animals (including humans) freeze or play dead when they are scared. If the T. rex wasn't able to see non-moving creatures, it would miss most of its prey. Richard Levine explains the previous instances in which people escaped from the T. rex by freezing with: "the only reason it would not eat you is if it was not hungry."

Supporting Dr. Alan Grant's theory is that the Tyrannosaurus may not be able to see you, so to counteract this, the T. rex gives a loud roar to scare its prey into revealing their position by running away. The T. rex may then make the kill. Supporting Levine's theory, in Jurassic Park the Tyrannosaurus, when it escapes from its paddock, eats Donald Gennaro which may have satisfied its hunger. This may be why, instead of the Tyrannosaurus eating Grant as well, it only gave a roar to scare him out of her territory. This way the threat to her territory was eliminated.

In the second novel, Michael Crichton takes the blame of the wrong theory, that T. rex‘s sight is based on movement, away from Dr. Alan Grant. It is stated that the paleontologist Dr. John Roxton wrote an article in which he stated that the brain of the Tyrannosaurus was very similar to that of frogs. Therefore, Dr. Roxton concluded that T. rex‘s sight was based on movement. Alan Grant and also the biologist George Baselton had no expertise in brain anatomy and accepted the conclusions of the article.

It is possible that since it was a predator with binocular vision, Tyrannosaurus had trouble seeing stationary prey in the dark, though this is a dubious theory, and one that Dr.Grant suggested should be applied (the 'don't move' tactic) on Isla Sorna when they stumbled upon a Tyrannosaurus - in broad daylight. The T. rex killed Gennaro because he while he was still in one place, he was visibly shaking and moving his arms, therefore revealing his position to the T. rex. Some parts of Gennaro were found when Malcolm was discovered. In Jurassic Park III, the characters in the story run into a Tyrannosaurus devouring its prey (Parasaurolophus according to the special effects commentary). The T. rex then gives a roar scaring the party into running away. The Tyrannosaurus then chases the group. This ironically can support either side of the debate. The Tyrannosaurus rex may have not been able to see the group so it scared them into running so he could find them or he may have not been hungry from eating its prey, so it just wanted to scare the group away by roaring and chasing them away. Supporting this is the fact that in the Jurassic Park novel and film, the Tyrannosaurus chases a jeep away from her territory then ceases the pursuit despite the fact that she could have easily destroyed the jeep.

Hunting
Tyrannosaurs were depicted as apex predators and as such spent a lot of time following game trails. They seemed to prefer to ambush prey animals, and it was once thought that this was possibly because of their motion sensitive eyesight, which has since been disproved. It was once theorized that most prey animals freeze when afraid because the Tyrannosaurus supposedly lacked the ability to see stationary prey. In actuality, Tyrannosaurus have excellent binocular vision. (see Eyesight Debate) The Tyrannosaurus are not random killers, however, and are less likely to attack when full.

Parenting
In The Lost World novel and, Tyrannosaurus is shown as being a protective parent. Tyrannosaurus are shown to pair off during mating, and both parents will remain with their offspring during its growth, exhibiting very powerful parenting and protective instincts, going to great lengths to ensure an infant's safety. Tyrannosaurus are territorial by nature, and will attempt to drive away anything that might be deemed dangerous, whether animate or not. They are known to be efficient parents, with both male and female keeping close guard over infants and bringing them food for a considerable matter of months. They will ferociously defend their offspring during this stage from predators and humans, and will even travel far outside their native territories to find them if they get lost. Like most predators, they presumably teach their young how to hunt once the time comes.

While no T. rex nest has yet been found in the real world, the living relatives of Tyrannosaurus (birds and crocodilians) guard their nests and take care of their babies. Similarly, there is evidence from nests of smaller meat-eaters and from various plant-eaters that many dinosaurs were good parents. So the simplest explanation at present is that, fearsome though it may have been, Tyrannosaurus probably looked after its eggs and young.

Jurassic Park Franchise
Tyrannosaurus is one of the most popular dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park franchise. It appeared as the main super-predators in the novels and first two films, it appears in Jurassic Park III but only in one scene fighting the Spinosaurus. It appears in every video game, mostly as a boss. Tyrannosaurus is also featured in all the toy lines as well.

Jurassic Park
In Jurassic Park, InGen recreated the Tyrannosaurus. Two Tyrannosaurus were present on Isla Nublar; one adult and one juvenile, although there was no interaction between them. The Tyrannosaurus had a sensitive skin, and therefore sought shelter from the sun under the canopy.

After the power cut, when the creatures break free of confinement and attack the cars. The adult didn't kill anyone, although it nearly killed Dr. Malcolm and almost ate Tim. The juvenile killed Ed Regis. The creature was also a surprisingly good swimmer, described as swimming much like a crocodile, though this is very unlikely in real life.

Dr. Grant and the children later find it sleeping as they raft down a river. When Lex coughs uncontrollably it wakes up and takes to the water, swimming after them, but soon abandons the pursuit when the juvenile T. rex tries to move in on the adult's onshore kill. Muldoon later shoots it with a very large tranquilizer dart, which causes the T. rex to pass out while it was trying to eat Tim, saving Dr. Grant and the children who were seeking refuge behind a waterfall. It is possible, although not directly mentioned, that the adult Tyrannosaurus drowned. The survivors, fleeing by helicopter, have one last look at the juvenile before it and the other dinosaurs are destroyed.

The Lost World
In The Lost World one pair of Tyrannosaurus is present at Isla Sorna. They have a nest on the east side of the island. A team led by Dr. Ian Malcolm arrive at the island to rescue Dr. Richard Levine. But when the male T. rex sees their car in his territory the male puts his flag on the car. The T. rex pretends to attack Dr.Jack Thorne and Dr. Richard Levine to make them leave their territory. The team of Dr. Lewis Dodgson tries to steal the eggs of Tyrannosaurus, but the attempt fails and George Baselton gets eaten.

One of Tyrannosaurus infants is wounded, therefore Eddie Carr takes the infant to the trailers and the team puts a temporary cast on its broken leg. But before they can bring the infant back, the parents have reached the trailers to collect their child. Once the child is safe, they attack the trailers and push them over the cliff.

The Tyrannosaurus tries to get Sarah Harding and Dodgson, who are hiding under a car. Dr. Harding pushes Dr. Dodgson away and the T. rex takes Dr. Dodgson to his nest as food for the infants.

Jurassic Park
In the Tyrannosaurus was to be one of the main attractions at Jurassic Park. The female in this film (nicknamed Rexy) is supposedly the largest Tyrannosaurus seen in the series with many trading cards listing her size as 14 meters (46 feet) long and 6.5 (21 feet) tall. This makes her one of the largest Tyrannosaurus on record.

John Hammond reveals the park has a T. rex shortly after the visitors arrive on the island. Ellie was very shocked to hear about the T. rex. Dr. Grant almost fainted. When the visitors reach the Tyrannosaur Paddock, the T. rex doesn't appear; even when it is lured with a goat.

At night the tour vehicles are stranded right near the T. rex paddock. After being attracted to the waving flashlight in the lead car, she attacked the car and its passengers. It killed Gennaro and wounded Dr. Malcolm. After failing to pinpoint Grant and Lex's location, it attempted to flush them out by pushing the wrecked lead car down the road and off a steep incline in its enclosure.

Later, when Ellie and Muldoon arrived in a jeep searching for Dr. Grant and the children, the female returned and promptly charged at their jeep, pursuing it out of the vicinity, then ended the pursuit just as they crashed through a fallen tree.

As Dr. Grant and the children were making their way through the park, they were nearly trampled by stampeding Gallimimus, which were running from the Rex. She came bursting out of the woods and killed one of the Gallis.

Her final appearance was as the unlikely heroine. In the Visitor Center, the visitors are trapped by raptors, which are about to attack. Rexy bursts into the Visitor Center and grabs one of the raptors. The other raptor attacks Rexy, but Rexy kills it without much trouble. It this way, the visitors could escape with their lives.

Jurassic Park: The Game
The Tyrannosaurus appeared in Telltale's Jurassic Park: The Game as one of the main antagonists. The T. rex is the same one seen in the first film.

It is first seen in Triceratops Trouble, where it faces off against Lady Margaret, the alpha Triceratops, almost killing Gerry Harding, his daughter Jess, who had come to visit the island earlier, and a very ill Nima Cruz, who was unconscious at the time. The two of them narrowly escape with their lives and wait out the night in the Triceratops Maintenance Building as the two titans clash.

The T. rex then makes its second appearance in The Visitor Center. After a harrowing climax, Dr. Harding and Jess make it outside, managing to hit the T. rex with a few tranquilizer darts. Nima, now fully recovered, helps them drive away the predator by sending the jeep wheeling away, and the T. rex, now in a sedating, confused stupor due to the darts, follows the lone tour car. It would later be found to be missing the roof and badly damaged.

In Did You Hear That? it appears in the clearing where Yoder, Oscar Morales and Nima crashed the helicopter. Yoder and Nima, along with the Parasaurolophus that the predator is chasing, run to the area near the water tower and the tunnels. The T. rex loses the Parasaurolophus, but kills a loitering Velociraptor, gaining access to another Parasaurolophus its pack had already killed.

Yoder has to sneak past the T. rex to retrieve the embryo can that he dropped.

It makes its final appearance by the dock in the final climax of the game, eating Billy Yoder. It also eats Nima Cruz if the player chooses the ending to rescue the embryos. The climax culminates to the T. rex chasing Dr. Harding across the cargo bay before he finally makes it onto the boat, with Jess and with or without Nima. If the player chooses the opposite ending to rescue Jess, it steps on the Barbasol can, destroying the embryos. It's very likely that the T. rex was destroyed in the napalm bombing.

In Dr. Laura Sorkin's personal journal, she hypothesizes that the movement-based vision of the T. rex was caused by Dr. Henry Wu's frog DNA insertion rather than being a natural feature of the animal. However, she also admits that the disability makes the animal safer to observe.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park
A pair of Tyrannosaurus; a male and a female, and a baby are present in The Lost World. Roland Tembo captures the infant to lure the male into the open so he can capture it. The infant is rescued by Dr. Sarah Harding and Nick Van Owen, who then put a temporary cast on its broken leg. Unfortunately, the cries of the infant draw its parents to the research trailers. Dr. Harding releases the infant in hopes that the adults will leave, but they attempt to dispose of the invaders by pushing the trailers over a nearby cliff and into the sea. Eddie manages to keep them from falling, but the adults return unexpectedly, angered by his efforts to save them, and proceed to tear through the car and eat him.



They later pursue the group, now traveling with Ludlow's's party and kill a number of people. Roland manages to use a tranquilizer on the male and shoot him down, which is transported to San Diego on the ship S.S. Venture.

Despite the being restrained a cage would barely allow it to move, the Rex breaks free and devours the crew during the journey and is accidentally released after the ship smashes into the dock. Dehydrated and hungry, the Rex rampages through the city in search of food and water, finding the latter in the form of a swimming pool and the former in the form of a pet dog. Although the dog's owners find the Rex after their son is awaken by its loud growl, we do not know if they are eaten or not.



Doctors Ian Malcolm and Sarah Harding retrieve the infant from a secure facility that it was brought to via helicopter. They use it to lure the adult back to the S.S. Venture, placing it in the cargo hold. Ludlow goes in to recapture it, but is trapped when the adult descends behind him and leaves the rest of the killing to the infant. Sarah manages to use a tranquilizer on the adult before an attempt was sent out to kill it, and it and its infant are transported back to Isla Sorna to rejoin the female.

The number of deaths is not specified but it seems that several were caused by panic rather than by the Rex itself. The T. rex did however, cause considerable material damage, most notably knocking a bus in a Blockbuster video store. The male Tyrannosaurus was 18 feet tall and 40 feet long. The female was 19.5 feet tall and 43 feet long. The infant was 3 feet tall and 6 feet long.

Jurassic Park III
In Jurassic Park III, a sub-adult male Tyrannosaurus was stumbled upon by Grant and the others while feeding on the corpse of a dead dinosaur (either that the rex hunted or scavenged from smaller theropods) and immediately gave chase, possibly to protect its kill or chase the humans away, and crossed paths with the Spinosaurus. The two carnivores engaged in a vicious battle and the Rex seemed to have the upper hand in the fight until the Spinosaurus grabs the neck with its jaws, snapping its neck and falls dead and presumably eaten by the Spinosaurus. In reality, the Tyrannosaurus would probably have won the battle because when it bit down on the Spinosaurus' neck it should've been killed.

Tyrannosaurus was later mentioned when Eric Kirby told Dr. Grant that he collected T. rex urine. Dr. Grant asked Eric how he collected the urine, Eric simply said that he did not want to know.

According to official size-charts, the Tyrannosaurus from Jurassic Park III was 37 feet long and 14.5 feet tall, making it smaller than the previous Tyrannosaurus, and possibly not fully grown yet. Despite both individuals being male, the animal killed by the Spinosaurus was likely just a rogue and not the infant from the previous film. Supposedly, the reason for his controversial demise is because of his age. Being a sub-adult apparently gave the notably young Tyrannosaurus a downside of his jaws not being totally all that strong, and therefore, gave the older Spinosaurus the advantage of having stronger, more neck-snap friendly jaws. With the rex's death in the third film, many fans complained in hopes of its' return in the fourth film.

Jurassic Park Adventures
Tyrannosaurus is featured in Prey.

Video games
Tyrannosaurus has appeared in all Jurassic Park games. Listed below is a list of notable games featuring the dinosaur.

Jurassic Park (arcade game)
Tyrannosaurus is featured in the arcade version of Jurassic Park. In the game, the player encounters the T. rex three times within the game and is boss at all times. In Area one the T. rex is the first dinosaur you encounter and is chasing you while you have to shoot at her head. At the end of Act two you encounter it again and you must defeat it the same way as the first time by shooting at its head, this time however the rex is harder to kill and has a health bar. At the end of the game in Act four you encounter the T. rex along with a second and you must defeat them at the same time by shooting at their heads, just like the previous time both of them also have health bars.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (arcade game)
Tyrannosaurus appears in the arcade adaptation of the The Lost World: Jurassic Park; both the male and the female T. rex's from the film served as the game's bosses, the female as first boss in Stage 1 and the male as last boss in Stage 5 after the female. The baby T. rex is featured in Stages 4 and 5.

Jurassic Park: Chaos Island
Tyrannosaurus appears in Jurassic Park: Chaos Island, as one of the strongest dinosaurs and the hardest to kill. The baby T. rex is also featured in two of the missions. In the bonus mission taking place during the San Diego incident, the player plays as the T. rex; who oddly in the game is female, instead of male. The T. rex in the game resembles the Bull T. rex from The Lost World Series 1 toyline.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (video game)
Tyrannosaurus is featured in the console adaptation of the The Lost World: Jurassic Park film. It serves as both a playable character and the final boss of the game.

Warpath: Jurassic Park
Tyrannosaurus is featured in the video game Warpath: Jurassic Park. Its attack patterns were the same as Acrocanthosaurus and Cryolophosaurus and has 3 colors: blue, green, and blue with orange stripes. Its arena was Freighter Deck.

Jurassic Park: Trespasser


"Tyrannosaurus Rex--Tyrant Lizard. They reigned for 25 million years; we grew seven of them, the seven rulers of the island."

-John Hammond

In Jurassic Park: Trespasser, Tyrannosaurus is an enemy, being the most powerful adversary in the game. It is invincible, unless being killed by the Toxic Rifle, or other hidden weapons. It is said that InGen made seven T. rex, meaning seven kings of the prehistoric world, each of which would be faced at one point during the course of the game. The colors of some of the T. rex were based on The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It is first seen in the Industrial Jungle and last seen in The Ascent's first part. The Tyrannosaurus in Ascent 1 is called the "Alpha Tyrannosaurus" according to ingame files. The Alpha Tyrannosaurus also makes an appearance in the Trespasser Demo as well. In addition, another Tyrannosaurus skin didn't make the cut. This Tyrannosaurus was a brighter green than the normal green T. rex. It is unknown why this green Tyrannosaurus was scrapped but it might have had to do with the fact that the skin was too high in quality.

Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis
see Tyrannosaurus rex/Operation Genesis

Tyrannosaurus is one of the main dinosaurs in the game Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. It is a 5-star carnivore, and is described as possibly the most powerful dinosaur in the game. It will devour guests, swallowing the guest whole after first shaking them around violently, making it mirror the death of Gennaro in the first film. The T. rex in the game is green, reflecting the appearance of the specimen seen in Jurassic Park III.

Jurassic Park: Builder
Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the available dinosaurs in the IOS application, Jurassic Park: Builder.

Toy Lines
T. rex has appeared in all toy lines.

Trivia

 * It is commonly believed that the Tyrannosaurus was the main antagonist of the film, but this is incorrect; the raptors were the true antagonists. The T. rex was merely an anti-hero. However, she can also be considered the star dinosaur, as Spielberg actually altered the ending prior to filming to include the T. rex, knowing the audience would be disappointed if she did not return one last time.
 * The face of the Buck is adorned with many facial scars and many of the teeth in his mouth are broken or missing. This is indicative towards the animal participating in fights for mating rights or dominance.
 * It's curious that Roland wishes to hunt the Tyrannosaurus Buck when the female Tyrannosaurus is actually larger. This could possibly stem from that fact that Roland is a professional hunter and in sport hunting it is the male that is prized for it's size and adornment and Roland did not know that it is the female that is holds the size.
 * The T. rex animatronic in Jurassic Park /// was actually the same animatronic for the Buck in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Stan Winston Studios repainted the animatronic lighter colors in order to represent a sub-adult individual, however they can both still be recognized as the same robot by the facial scaring on the right side of the muzzle.

Media
Click here for images and videos related to this article.