New Tyrannosaurus specimen+perhaps new evidence for pack behavior in Tyrannosauurs rex

UCMP 118742

A few years ago paleontologists found a large T.rex specimen in Montana which has now finally been fully excavated and prepared. This (allegedly) over 12 meter long speciemn was named "King Kong" due to it's large size and black color. It was on display in Munich from the 24th to the 26th October (really bummed that I missed out on that). "King Kong" had a healed fracture on his right shin bone and as all of you probably know, a T.rex with a broken leg was pretty much dead, however, this specimen survived and I believe that to be evidence for pack behavior, since a crippled Tyrannosauurs wouldn't be able to survive a single week without help from external sources.

What do you think? Do you have anything to add?

Tyrannosaurus rex for the first time on display in Europe

http://apps.ubmasia.com/eNews/

_{*Edited by **AL**}

DinoSteve93

Very interesting, could you please link an article or something to support this? I don't find anything.

UCMP 118742

Sure, here ya go:

https://munichshow.com/en/the-munich-show/public-days/highlights-2014/special-exhibitions/special-exhibition-fossilworld/

http://apps.ubmasia.com/eNews/newsletter_template/381/enews_21232.html

(german):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMmRjuoPpGI

UCMP 118742

Little bits and pieces I forgot to add in the original post: King Kong is actually the first not-purely-artificial Tyrannosaurus specimen to be shown in Europe and with 65% of the skeleton, one of the most complete Tyrannosaurs to date. It is also one of the very few Tyrannosaurus specimen including arms.

Tyrant king

This is a very nice find UCMP. I always knew they hunted in packs.

dinoboy22

how old was he when he got the injury? could be that the mother tended to him and protected him well enough

UCMP 118742

That's why it might not be clear evidence, but I personally don't see why it being saved by it's parents would exclude it being a pack animal, as it is, small family groups seem like the most accurate option for Tyrannosaurus packs.

DinoSteve93

Thank you! That's a very interesting find! :)

Alphadino65

Always happy whenever a new T.rex skeleton is shown to the public.

DinoBoy brings up a very critical question.  King Kong could have still been under the care of its parents when it sustained the fracture, and I'd really like to know how pronounced the healed fracture is.  It would give a good indication on when it was sustained.

Something Real

UCMP 118742 - How very neat! If this animal received its injury during its middle adulthood and survived for it to heal, then I would definately say it makes an extremely strong case for the theory that T-Rex dwelled in packs! This is an incredibly interesting bit of information you've presented! Thank you so much for sharing this with us! :)

Lord of the Spinosaurs

I believe that T. Rex lived in a small family group with two parents and some juveniles, having an all out pack with like seven adults would starve the pack.

Tyrant king

Why do you say this?

Alphadino65

Lord of the Spinosaurs, I'll add on to your hypothesis with the pubescent juveniles that were forced to leave their birth pack made their own renegade pack until they were large enough to live alone, or were too aggressive to deal with the sibling rivalry, because even though they would be going through their hyper-growth stage, they would still be vulnerable at certain ages/sizes compared to their parents and other adults.  Living in a teen pack would provide safety in numbers.  Not even a fully-grown Nanotyrannus would pick on 3-4 teenage T.rexes.

Raptor-401

Much interesting indeed, I mean T-Rex would have done better with pack hunters, despite what people say about t "not needing any."

Interesting find, a while ago I found other evidence supporting this, but I can't remember it...

Lone

Awesome and very interesting!

Thank you UCMP! :)

Rex Fan 684

Nice post :)

JPCerato

Nice and interesting post, I always had a thought at the back of my head that said "Packs!"

Also, although I'm a Spino fan, I love Rex and like hearing news positive news about him, not negative, like when I found that Spino article...Oooh! 

BTW I love the 2005 King Kong movie, and love his name XD Lol

Carnosaur

UCMP 118742

When you say "gracile", do you mean the gracile morphotype or gracile in general?

Carnosaur

Both, actually. "king Kong" seems to be mostly described in unofficial media outlets atm though,so i'm decidedly unsure about how this one compares to other T. rex specimens.

Rex Fan 684

Even if it is gracile, it's still probably a good 8 tons in weight(at 41 ft). The holotype is around 7-8 tons and measures 39 ft, Sue's at 9-9.5 tons and she's a good 41 or 42 ft. So I'd say 8 tons or so is a good weight estimate for this guy.