T. Rex Has the Most Powerful Bite of Any Land Animal

Researchers from the University of Liverpool have found that the popular dinosaur species may actually have the most powerful bite of any terrestrial animal - living or extinct. This was discovered after researchers successfully reconstructed the Tyrannosaurus rex's jaw muscle using computer models.

By scaling up the skulls of other terrestrial animals like alligators and humans as well as that of an Allosaurus to the size of a fully-grown T. rex, scientists were able to compare the bite force for each species. Previous estimates have hypothesized that the T. rex's bite had a force of somewhere between 8,000 to 13,400 Newtons. However, it has long been suspected that it might be even powerful than any previous estimates.

Liverpool researchers has developed a computer model that is capable of simulating the animal's bite - amodel similar to the ones used to predict the reunning speeds of dinosaurs. Through the computer model. it was predicted that the T. rex's bite might actually be somewhere between 20,000 and 57,000 Newtons - a bite that can be compared to that of an elephant sitting down on the ground.

Dr. Karl Bates of the University of Liverpool's Department of Musculoskeletal Biology mentioned how the force of the T. rex's bite has always been a hotly debated topic. "Scientists only have the skeleton to work with, as muscle does not survive with the fossil, so we often have to rely on statistical analysis or qualitative comparisons to living animals, which differ greatly in size and shape from the giant enigmatic dinosaurs like T. rex." 

He mentions that since earlier methods employed to measure the bite force of extinct animals like the T. rex have been indirect, it has always been challenging to get a close-to-accurate insight. However, thanks to the new computer model employed, scientists are already given a glimpse on how powerful the T. rex's bite really is.