Can we just stop and think about how perfect it is that T.rex got the name it did?
Like, paleontology was still a new field when it was discovered. There were probably like ten dinosaurs listed at the time, and they already gave T.rex the greatest dinosaur name ever. There were thousands of species waiting to be discovered that could’ve proved a better fit for the name.
Imagine if Herrerasaurus had been discovered first and they had decided to call it Tyrannosaurus rex because it was a big predator by their standards? It would’ve become a joke about how the great “tyrant lizard king” was actually a little runt compared to later theropod findings.
Or imagine if they gave T.rex a less impressive name, like some other dinosaurs. It could’ve been called Wyomingsaurus or kept the name Manospondylus gigas. What sort of name is “giant porous vertebrae”?
But thankfully it didn’t happen. The president of the American Natural History museum looked at this fossil that was just one of the first of an entire world of dinosaurs waiting to be discovered, and thought “You are the baddest dinosaur we’re ever going to find, so you’re getting the baddest name we can give.”
And it worked. It’s been like 119 years since T.rex was discovered and it’s still the most badass theropod we’ve ever found, with the strongest bite force of any land animal and so successful that wherever it appeared in the fossil record other predators disappeared. It was so badass that as juveniles they outcompeted small-to-medium adult predators.
The baddest dinosaur ever could’ve gotten a weaksauce name, or the baddest name ever could’ve gone to an undeserving dinosaur. But it didn’t, and now the greatest land predator to ever walk the earth has the equally greatest name Tyrannosaurus rex, the motherfucking Tyrant Lizard King.
I finished putting together the Irish-American heritage month display and Jesus CHRIST there are so few books about Ireland in our collection?? Once more, I must say:
yesterday i was talking to a Guy and i asked what time it was and he git really excited and said "time for you to get aaaaa.... SUNDIAL!!" and then started talking about sundials and sounding like a fucking commercial and i pointed out that sundials have to be in one specific spot to work and he got all nervous and asked if i've tried a sextant. what the fuck
For the last three hundred years, metals had held them back, iron and steel and aluminum. But now it is the age of plastic, graphene and carbon fibers… It is time for the Fae Folk to go on the hunt again.
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