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Revision as of 14:04, 24 January 2025
T. Rex Evolution |
![]() Title text: Unfortunately, body size and bite force continue to increase. |
Explanation
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This explanation is incomplete: Created by a CREATURE WITH NEGATIVE LIMBS - fact-check the graph's "early" claim and flesh things out a bit. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
The small and seemingly useless forelimbs of tyrannosaurus rex have often been used as a source of humour in works of fiction that feature dinosaurs. Randall claims that the ancestors of tyrannosaurus had (relatively) longer and therefore more useful forelimbs, and hypothesizes that - had non-avian dinosaurs not suffered an extinction event - this trend of "reduced limbs" would continue until present-day descendants of tyrannosaurus were limbless creatures not unlike a snake.
The title text claims that tyrannosaurus was also larger than its ancestors, and that the same trend in growth would continue so that the hypothetical limbless present-day descendant would be even larger than the famously elephant-sized tyrannosaurus.
Transcript
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This transcript is incomplete: Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
- [A graph of limbs over time, with 3 animals represented]
- [The vertical axis ins labelled Limbs, from 0 to 4]
- [The horizontal axis is not labelled but represents time, in ticks of 10 million years, from 180 million years ago to 0.]
- ["Extinction" points to 65 million years ago, and "Now" points to 0.]
- [The first animal, a regular dinosaur, is in the top left: 4 limbs, 150 million years ago.]
- 4 normal limbs
- [An arrow goes from it to the second animal, a T.Rex, in the middle, just left of "extinction".]
- Barely more than 2
- [An dashed arrow with a question mark goes from it to the last animal: a leg-less dinosaur with a big mouth.]
- ???
- [Caption bellow the panel:]
- If T.Rex hadn't gone extinct
- (linear extrapolation)



Discussion
The next stage in T-Rex would be a massive lizard with incredible bite force and barely any limbs... an Alligator 172.70.115.198 13:31, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Well, we do have large, legless animals with big mouths and teeth ... they're called 'snakes'. 172.70.178.44 15:25, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- two enter keys to form a new line Caliban (talk) 13:33, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
So that explains the loch ness monster? 172.70.250.195 14:47, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Probably not. T. Rex lived in America. --Coconut Galaxy (talk) 14:50, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Since when has obvious contradictory facts gotten in the way of cryptids? 108.162.238.104 15:04, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Not another CG account sigh 42.book.addictTalk to me! 16:02, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- alright, calm down, it's just the person(s?) who tried to start a conscript ARG on this wiki IIRC Caliban (talk) 17:14, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- I guess you’re right. I should probably follow WP:GOODFAITH more when it comes to matters like this 42.book.addictTalk to me! 17:47, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- My account name is randomly generated 🤷♂️ --Coconut Galaxy (talk) 08:07, 25 January 2025 (UTC)
- alright, calm down, it's just the person(s?) who tried to start a conscript ARG on this wiki IIRC Caliban (talk) 17:14, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
So this is where snakes come from! -- Petercordia (talk) 17:01, 24 January 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Looks like this is how the tsuchinoko came to be... TheGoomba98 (talk) 17:12, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
Do we have any figures on just how strong the bite force would be? 172.68.22.223 17:15, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Strangely, those studying this have never returned any results.172.70.162.126 09:34, 27 January 2025 (UTC)
It seems like many here say that the T-Rex would become a snake, but it would have to simultaneously evolve to be able to move via the scales on its stomach, so I don't think it's guaranteed Sophon (talk) 18:45, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- You're right. It'll become a huge slug. 172.68.205.178 20:31, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
Isn't this how whales evolved? Of course, they lost their hind limbs first, while T Rex was losing its forelimbs.Vfp15 (talk) 23:21, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Dolphins too? I remember finding a snake once with tiny non-functional legs. Surely there are some cool pics on Commons for this explanation, anyone? 162.158.91.48 02:24, 25 January 2025 (UTC)
- I was pretty sure that because of the bone structure, it was thought that that the rear legs merged into the flipper, and that's why it's horizontal, versus vertical like in a fish. At least that's what I thought I read once. Looking at it now, it seems it does have some semblance of a vestigial hip / rear limbs and the fluke is just cartilage. Although seals and walruses do seem to have developed in the way I thought. As for the T. Rex, it actually turned into a Drinking bird. SammyChips (talk) 17:15, 27 January 2025 (UTC)
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