Stratum.black
Tyrannosaurus rex — Tyrannosaurus rex
Tyrannosaurus rex — Steveoc 86, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA 4.0

Dinosaur

Tyrannosaurus rex

Tyrant lizard king

Tyrannosaurus rex is the apex predator of the Hell Creek and Lance formations and the most valuable dinosaur in the trade. Shed crowns are thick, D-shaped in cross-section at the front and heavily serrated with chisel-shaped denticles; complete rooted teeth from private ranches sell for thousands per inch. Bone and skeletons from private land are legal in the US but attract intense scrutiny of provenance.

PhylumChordata
ClassReptilia
OrderSaurischia
FamilyTyrannosauridae
GroupDinosaur
Size12 m long; teeth to 30 cm with root
Rank (PBDB)species· Paleobiology Database
AuthorOsborn 1905· Paleobiology Database
Common name (PBDB)tyrant lizard king· Paleobiology Database
Classification (PBDB)Chordata › Reptilia › NO_ORDER_SPECIFIED › Tyrannosauridae· Paleobiology Database
Range (PBDB)83.6–66 Ma· Paleobiology Database
PBDB occurrences70· Paleobiology Database

Restoration and fakes

Tip and serration repair is routine; look for colour breaks and resin under UV. Juvenile T. rex teeth are sold as Nanotyrannus by some dealers, a contested name.

Photographs

Tyrannosaurus rex — Tyrannosaurus rex Osborn, 1905, NON-TYPE (NHMUK PV R 16372)
Tyrannosaurus rex Osborn, 1905, NON-TYPE (NHMUK PV R 16372) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0
Tyrannosaurus rex — Tyrannosaurus rex Osborn, 1905, CAST OF HOLOTYPE (NHMUK PV R 3912)
Tyrannosaurus rex Osborn, 1905, CAST OF HOLOTYPE (NHMUK PV R 3912) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0
Tyrannosaurus rex — Tyrannosaurus rex Osborn, 1905, REFERRED (NHMUK PV R 8020)
Tyrannosaurus rex Osborn, 1905, REFERRED (NHMUK PV R 8020) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0

Age

Formations

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Tyrannosaurus rex" (Taxon). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/taxa/tyrannosaurus-rex. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-tyrannosaurus-rex,
  title        = {Tyrannosaurus rex},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/taxa/tyrannosaurus-rex}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Taxon article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, pbdb, wikidata, commons, nhm. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

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