Natural History, including Apex the Stegosaurus
Natural History, including Apex the Stegosaurus
Tyrannosaurus Rex Tooth
Late Cretaceous (approx. 67 million years ago), Hell Creek Formation, Butte Co., South Dakota
No reserve
Auction Closed
July 17, 03:28 PM GMT
Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Tyrannosaurus Rex Tooth
Tyrannosaurus rex
Late Cretaceous (approx. 67 million years ago)
Hell Creek Formation, Butte Co., South Dakota
4.29 inches (10.9 cm) in length, measured base to tip along anterior edge. 5½ inches (14 cm) tall on custom metal stand.
An extremely large and intact tooth from the lower jaw showing nicely preserved enamel with a dark, umber patina. The tip and serrations on both edges show varying degrees of wear.
AN EXTREMELY LARGE AND WELL-PRESERVED TOOTH FROM THE MOST FEARSOME PREDATOR EVER TO 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 per square inch, the strongest of any terrestrial animal other than its ancestor, Gorgosaurus. In comparison to other carnivorous theropods, Tyrannosaurus 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-long (12.2 m) apex predator allowed it to hunt virtually every large dinosaur in its environment, including Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, Ornithomimus, Pachycephalosaurus, Edmontosaurus, and even other tyrannosaurs.