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Re: A T-rex named Sue



Jaime A. Headden wrote:


  Not really. Gigi has a longer skull and longer body
than Rex; Rex is wider, bulkier, and proportionately
stronger in form

You may be right. The vertebrae of _Giganotosaurus_, though, are massive - check out Coria and Salgado (1995).

The thing is, theropods may have continued growing throughout their lives - although the rate of growth probably slowed down drastically once they reached full maturity. Asking which is the biggest - _Tyrannosaurus_, _Giganotosaurus_, _Saurophaganax_, _Carcharodontosaurus_ etc etc - is like asking how long is a piece of string. We can ask which individual theropod SPECIMEN has the largest dimensions, but with only a small number of specimens available for most species, extrapolating that to the entire SPECIES seems meaningless. Especially, as Jerry Harris says, it's so close anyway.


Tim



References

Coria, R.A., and Salgado, L. (1995). A new giant carnivorous dinosaur from the Cretaceous of Patagonia. Nature 377: 224-226.

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