T. rex Might Have Been Even Bigger Than We Thought | 7 Days of Science

Scientists have calculated the maximum possible size that T. rex could have reached! Also in the news, a new species of tyrannosaur has been discovered in Asia, we interviewed palaeontologists on a recent discovery of another new dinosaur species, and much more!

Become a Channel Member or support us on Patreon for behind-the-scenes, bloopers, extra adventures and more!
Join our Patreon:

Subscribe to explore the wonderful life around you!

Social Media:

Sources:
Dark Oxygen discovered at the seafloor:

Potential fossils of life found on Mars:

New species of tyrannosaur from China Asiatyrannus xui:

New species of troodontid dinosaur from Japan Hypnovenator matsubaraetoheorum:

T. rex could have been even bigger than we realised:

New iguanodontian dinosaur from England Comptonatus chasei (interview):

Complex life began earlier than we thought:

A bizarre new Cambrian creature Nuucichthys rhynchocephalus was related to us:

0:00 - Introduction
0:27 - 'Dark Oxygen' discovered on the seafloor
1:37 - Potential fossils of life found on Mars
2:43 - New species of Tyrannosaur discovered in China
3:57 - New species of troodontid dinosaur discovered in Japan
4:53 - T. rex might have been even bigger than we realised
7:12 - New species of iguanodontian dinosaur discovered (Interview)
21:11 - Did complex life on Earth evolve earlier than we realised?
22:32 - Bizarre new Cambrian creature was related to us
23:13 - Outro

[JohnDoe-jhcf]

I love how most of the time it is like "actually no X dinosaur/extinct thing wasn't a giant monster; it was actually like 3 ft tall and ate fish" and then T-Rex just keeps getting scarier the more we learn about it

[exileisland]

Dedicating the dinos name to his friend who found so many yet never got one named after him is nuclear levels of wholesome. That's a real friend.

[SlightlyCivil]

Man, every time theres news about rex it either gets fatter or larger. Soon they're gonna say it could actually inflate like a puffer fish

[saychaysarchive]

Dark oxygen sounds like the kind of thing that give super powers to a 1960s comic book superhero

[aaleven]

3:24 "described a decade ago in 2014" oh god oh god oh god

[orionspur]

6:50 Note if we *did* find a T-rex fossil that large, it would no longer be maximal, because statistics would then force us to re-increase our estimate of the upper bound.

[sava-smth]

We shrunk the dunk, now we inflate the t.rex. what a time to be alive...

[napalmholocaust]

Part of the "dark oxygen" name was from the decades old mystery of why the oxygen levels increased with depth, in some places dramatically. Like dark energy; hidden.

[AntoekneeDE]

I really appreciated the discussion points around entering palaeontology later in life. It’s something I would love to do later in life but isn’t on the cards at present other than as an interest and very infrequent hobby

[LordFrito]

I always wanted to be a paleontologist since i was a kid ever since i opened my first dinosaur book. So when i turned 18 I went to college and failed my first 2 semesters of math and English so i guess I'm too stupid in the eyes of big US education to get that piece of paper (my degree) so i gave up on my dream right away. So I deeply appreciate these veteran paleontologists saying how crucial amateurs are to the science

[Itual]

I think the title is a little misleading. The study is speculating about the potential size of the absolute biggest specimens of t-rex that could’ve ever lived. Not the size of t-rexes in general. In fact, the study seems to kinda confirm that our understanding of their size is fairly spot on, if the theorized grow curve is accurate. Not to mention that it goes both ways, we have also not found the smallest t-rexes and they could’ve grown a lot smaller than any adult t-Rex we’ve found.

It’s like saying humans are bigger than we thought because this one guy in the 20s was 2.7m tall.

[charleston]

Dark Oxygen out here bein regular oxygen’s edgy cousin

[WasThisMail]

really appreciated jeremy’s perspective on pivoting into the field of paleontology

very inspiring stuff

[Keizer-py]

they always say "trex is 50% or trex is 70% larger" but im gonna stick with scotty being the largest for now until theres a specimen that proves it

[skeepodoop]

Tyrannosaurus just be stealing all the scary from Spino and the Dunk huh?

[Taltinus]

Thats very touching for Jeremy to vouch for his mate's name on the Dino. I love that Nick Chase just collected, then delighted that he found a real specimen, donated it to science! Its a real calling, to just gather data and hand it out. Its maybe the most charitable thing you can do with your life, as people will build on the data, one way or another.

[MrCuntacular]

You should try to get those two gentlemen on the show more often. Their knowledge, and presentation of said knowledge itself has been an absolute joy as a viewer, and I had to stop at 16:00 to acknowledge it before going any further. Great stuff.

Your channel is an inspiration!

[Thechezbailey]

Regarding kids and fossil hunting, I have two (aged 6 and 4) and they're taxonomy wizards as well as being closer to the ground. We have a small but very diverse garden, full of edible and poisonous plants, and when we tell them which are which, they never forget or make mistakes -- they just keep asking questions and learning. They even remember better, and identify species quicker, than we do. Again, this despite them being really young. My wife and I figure that pattern recognition was huge evolutionary advantage for our own species at one point, so it's not really that surprising. They're very good at fossil hunting, too.

Tip: if you're wondering if you've found bone or a rock, lick your finger and stick it to the surface. Fossilized bone will feel "sticky" when you pull it away, whereas stone will not.

[TyrantkingX]

"In other news, Scientist now believe that Tyrannosaurus did reach to sizes comparable to Godzilla, but in their latest scientific models T.rex may have grown to size...of Galactus"

[mbvoelker]

I loved that interview. Thank you for presenting such excellent educational material for us.