Tyrannosaurus rex, the 67-million-year-old king of dinosaurs, is taking the throne once again — this time, on the Upper West Side, and with a 21st century twist.
The centerpiece of the American Museum of Natural History’s new exhibit, “T. rex: The Ultimate Predator” is a fearsomely accurate reproduction of the school bus-size Mesozoic lizard, complete with eyeballs as big as oranges, footlong teeth as thick as bananas and . . . a head of fluffy feathers?
“We know that these animals were feathered because we found close relatives that were feathered,” curator Mark Norell tells The Post. He says that while the full-grown mega-predator had both tail plumage and “a bit of a toupee,” a newborn T. rex would have been completely covered in birdlike feathers.
On display here is a downy dino hatchling, the size of a skinny turkey. Much bigger is the lifelike model of a 4-year old T. rex on the road to 9-ton adulthood: The typical T. rex gained a whopping 140 pounds per month during its wonder years.
“I guess the Atkins diet didn’t work out,” quips Gregory Erickson, a paleontologist from Florida State University who consulted on the exhibition. “They were eating machines.” Watch as a full-grown dinosaur skeleton seemingly comes to life under your feet, via a series of projections on the floor underneath the fossil.
Paleontologists say ultra-precise mathematical models and other forms of cutting-edge science have helped them piece together just what these monsters looked like. Among their findings: Dinosaurs had puny, vestigial arms — evolutionary leftovers — that were virtually useless. Brain scans of fossilized skulls suggest the T. rex used its keen sense of smell to seek out its prey.
Budding paleontologists can use virtual CT scanners and microscopes to explore a fossilized dino thigh bone at a mock lab bench, build a skeleton in a digital archeological site with virtual-reality goggles and chase T. rexes in their natural habitat via animation.
If you wondered about that Jurassic bark — well, so do scientists. “Sounds don’t fossilize,” Erickson explains. A “roar mixer” lets museumgoers compose their own sounds by combining the cries of elephants, bison, whales and crocs.
On view, too, though not for the squeamish, are coprolites — fossilized feces — that show T. rex fed on duck-billed dinosaurs and triceratops.
Talk about fossil fuels.
Roar
Although a “roar mixer” will allow visitors to DJ their own T. rex sounds by combining those of contemporary elephants, bison, whales and crocs, not much is known about T. rex’s Jurassic bark. “Sounds don’t fossilize,” says Gregory Erickson, a paleontologist from Florida State University who consulted on the exhibition. “Some people have speculated by looking at birds which are dinosaurs, and also crocodiles . . . it’s so big it would’ve had a deep, bellowing sound, not roaring like a lion.”
Erickson contends that there are some things we’ll never know about the now-extinct creatures, “I just try to find segues from what we have available, mostly bones, to answer some biological questions.” When it comes to sound, as a scientist, Erickson says he has “to think about the resonance of the skull, whether it had a cold or not.”
Teeth
They measure about a foot long each, with two-thirds hidden above the gumline, and each as thick as a banana. “[The pressure of a T. rex bite] would cause a bone to just blow up, it wouldn’t create a hole, it would explode,” says Mark Norell, the curator of the exhibit. Recently exhumed fossilized feces — or “coprolites,” for those with a weak stomach — with pulverized skeleton fragments of other species, prove that the dino was able to digest bone, an almost unheard-of ability.
A tailbone from a duck-billed dino with a T. rex tooth embedded (adults went through a full dental set every two years) is on display at the exhibit.
Feathers
“Feathers originally evolved in dinosaurs for warmth, they were endothermic,” says Norell, “Just like mammals had to have hair, they had to have feathers.” The evolution of the dino’s ’do had a lot to do with its internal temperature. “Once you get up to a certain size, your problem is keeping cool,” says Norell, who posits that in addition to warmth, baby rexes needed their fluffy armor to camouflage themselves. The top predator isn’t the only one with a soft visage, with many more ancient reptiles exhibiting similar styles. Says Norell, “We’ve found hundreds of feathered dinosaurs in Northeastern China.”
Baby
It’s hard to believe the ultimate predator was once a vulnerable hatchling. But before you cuddle up, know that the baby T. rex’s teeth, although not yet capable of biting through bone, were sharp as a knife. It is estimated that 50 percent of baby T. rexes wouldn’t survive to see adulthood, dying from starvation, disease or even being eaten by their own — bigger T. rexes!
Arms
T. rex was primarily a “headhunter” according to Norell — and not the corporate kind. Younger rexes would have been able to use their arms to grab prey and feed themselves, but as the giant carnivore grew, its massive head became more useful in hunting and its famously tiny arms became useless accessories.