(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Richard Sutcliffe)
A new documentary about Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) is coming in just a few weeks, and it looks promising.
New T. Rex Documentary
A new trailer for "T. Rex" was released earlier this year. It was a dinosaur documentary following the famous theropod, T. rex.
The official trailer, released in March, features prehistoric North Dakota 67 million years ago, including the different groups of dinosaurs: theropods, sauropods, stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, ornithopods, ceratopsians, and pachycephalosaurs.
The clip's text overlay read, "In a lost world of giants, there was a king."
The short clip highlights how T. rex dominates the other creatures at the time, including other dinos. It ends with the T. rex successfully capturing a prey.
The same documentary will also feature the paleontological journey of three boys, ages 7, 9, and 10, who unearthed a T. rex bone from the ground while exploring the Hell Creek Badlands of North Dakota in July 2022.
The trio—Kaiden Madsen and siblings Liam and Jessin Fisher—discovered it while hiking in Marmarth, North Dakota. Jessin, a Jurassic Park fan, told his cousin and brother to ditch their gadgets and invited them to hike.
According to Liam, the T. rex's bone was initially seen by him and his father, who was with the group. He initially thought it was a "chunk-osaurus" in the rock, a term used to refer to small fossil pieces that are too small to be recognized.
Sam Fisher grabbed some snaps and showed them to Tyler Lyson, a family acquaintance who worked as the associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
At first, Lyson thought the discovery was a common duckbill dinosaur. However, he set up an excavation that started last summer and included the boys and Emalynn Fisher, a 14-year-old sister.
During the trip, they discovered a jaw bone containing several teeth. They quickly understood their find was more than just a coincidence.
Lyson remembered excavating with Jessin in an area where he believed he might discover a neck bone. Seeing these enormous tyrannosaurus teeth staring back doesn't get any more descriptive than that, according to him.
The documentary team from Giant Screen Films was with them to record the expedition. According to Dave Clark, one of the crew members, he "got goosebumps."
"Jurassic Park" star Sam Neill narrates the documentary.
The film "T. Rex" will be released on June 21. A special exhibit called "Discovering Teen Rex" will open on the same day at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
What Is a T. Rex?
Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) was built to rule. It was considered the "king of the tyrant lizards." This dinosaur's massive, powerful tail extended up to 40 feet, or almost the length of a school bus, from its snout. T.rex weighed as much as eight tons and used its powerful legs to trample across its domain headfirst.
These dinosaurs most likely feasted on carcasses and living prey, occasionally devouring one another. T. rex is among the fiercest predators ever to set foot on Earth.
During the late Cretaceous period, 68 million years ago, this well-known carnivore ruled the forested river valleys of western North America. It had a large bulk, keen fangs, and jaws so strong they could smash an automobile.
T. rex is one of the most popular dinosaurs, and a 2023 controversial study suggested they were as bright as modern monkeys. However, a study published in April 2024 argued it wasn't the case.
"The possibility that T. rex might have been as intelligent as a baboon is fascinating and terrifying, with the potential to reinvent our view of the past," said Darren Naish, a British vertebrate paleontologist, author, and science communicator. "But our study shows how all our data is against this idea."
Despite the study's results, Naish said T. rex remained fascinating because they were "more like smart giant crocodiles."
RELATED ARTICLE: Tyrannosaurus Rex Speed Found to be Surprisingly Slow That Even Humans Can 'Outwalk' Them
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