Natural History
Natural History
Tyrannosaurus Rex Tooth
Late Cretaceous (approx. 67 million years ago), Hell Creek Formation, Perkins Co., South Dakota
No reserve
Auction Closed
July 26, 08:15 PM GMT
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Tyrannosaurus Rex Tooth
Tyrannosaurus rex
Late Cretaceous (approx. 67 million years ago)
Hell Creek Formation, Perkins Co., South Dakota
4½ inches (11.4 cm) in length. 7¼ inches (18.3 cm) tall on custom metal stand.
The present specimen is a well-preserved tooth, and a massive, robust example. The enamel shows surface structure well with no significant erosion visible. This tooth crown displays extensive serrations on both cutting edges without wear on the tip. This specimen demonstrates all the important characteristic features found in a Tyrannosaurus rex tooth.
AN UNCOMMONLY LARGE, WELL-PRESERVED TOOTH FROM THE MOST FEARSOME PREDATOR TO EVER WALK THE EARTH
No animal elicits the combination of fascination, reverence, and fear quite like that of Tyrannosaurus rex, the "tyrant lizard king."
Dominating the western landscape of late Cretaceous North America, T. rex's five-foot long skull was packed with 60 teeth and featured a bone-crushing bite force of nearly 13,000 pounds (5,900 kg) per square inch, the strongest of any terrestrial animal other than its ancestor, Gorgosaurus. In comparison to other carnivorous theropods, T. rex teeth are proportionately huge. Robust and thickly-enameled crowns strengthened dozens of teeth, with serrations on both the posterior and anterior edges. The almost unrivaled power of this 40-foot (12.2 m) long apex predator allowed it to hunt virtually every large dinosaur in its environment, including Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, Ornithomimus, Pachycephalosaurus, Edmontosaurus, and even other tyrannosaurs.