"T. rex had explosive growth spurt as a teen, study says"

[MKIRKALDY@aol.com]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2004-08-11-t-rex_x.htm

"NEW YORK (AP) â Here's a dinosaur finding that parents can appreciate: The 
teenage Tyrannosaurus rex typically went through an explosive growth spurt, 
gaining nearly 5 pounds a day."
 
"During that spurt, from ages 14 to 18, the creature picked up most of its 
eventual adult weight of around 6 tons, new research indicates. It stopped 
growing around age 20 and apparently died by age 30."

This is a new paper in tomorrow's Nature, one of the authors being Gregory 
Erickson of Florida State University.  There are some fine quotes in the 
article from our own Tom Holtz.

Mary