RE: tyrannosauus

["Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. [SMTP:th81@umail.umd.edu]
> Sent: Friday, December 04, 1998 7:41 AM
> To:   Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com
> Cc:   dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject:      Re: tyrannosauus
> 
> 
> 
> And, of course, everything on the web is correct... :-S
        #################

        Why, gosh yes!  :-)  

> Please consult the dinosaur list archives (at http://www.cmnh.org/) for
> more
> information on this specimen.  We have dealt with it quite extensively in
> the past.
> 
> The short form: there is no positive information at the moment to suggest
> this specimen is dramatically larger than other big specimens of _T. rex_.
> Also, there is no positive information at the moment that this ISN'T a _T.
> rex_, Internet-discussions to the contrary notwithstanding.
> 
> Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
> Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
> Dept. of Geology              Email:tholtz@geol.umd.edu
> University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
> College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661
> 
        Thanks.  This DOES bring up a question that has been floating around
in my gray matter for a while:
        if Tyrannosaurs (& perhaps other dinosaurs) grew throughout their
life, do we know what the
        growth rate was after reaching "maturity".  The analogy I'm thinking
of here is crocodiles.  If memory serves, the largest salt water crocodile
ever recorded was well over 20 feet & almost a ton.  
        Of course, with crocodiles, the growth rate slows considerably after
a certain age, but it never
        stops.  So, how much larger could a 30 year old Tyrannosaurus rex be
than, say a 10 year
        old T. rex?

        Dwight