T-Rex, the most terrifying dinosaur of them all, lived over 60 million years ago, but was only discovered in the early years of the 20th century. If you close your eyes you can picture this beast with a massive head and giant tail, weighing over 6 tons and with teeth over 23-centimetres long. Forget vampires, Frankenstein and King Kong — for me, T-Rex is the ultimate monster!
All of this explains why scientists chose the name they did when they discovered the fossils of an unknown dinosaur in the appropriately named Hell Creek in the USA. Can you guess the right answer from the following ‘T-Rex’ tales?
A. The literal translation of the Latin is ‘King of the Roars’, because T-Rex was a dinosaur that could roar more loudly than any other living being on the planet.
B. T-Rex was named after Monsieur Tyrrano, who first discovered the huge dinosaur fossil.
C. The name is Greek for ‘Tyrant Lizard, the King’.
ANSWER: C!
A ‘tyrant’ is a wicked bully, perfect for a dinosaur that trampled over, or ate, anything in its way.
The word ‘dinosaur’ itself means ‘terrible lizard’, and it has been used as the model for naming almost every dinosaur whose remains have been discovered since then. Here are a few more dinosaur names decoded:
BRONTOSAURUS means ‘thunder lizard’.
BRACHIOSAURUS means ‘arm lizard’, because its arms were longer than its legs.
STEGOSAURUS means ‘roof lizard’ because it had bony plates along its back.
IGUANODON means ‘iguana tooth’, because this dinosaur’s teeth looked like those of an iguana lizard.
PTERODACTYL means ‘winged finger’ because the creature’s wing was supported by a GIANT finger!