The body temperature of Tyrannosaurus rex.

Authors

Randon J Flores, Robert A Eagle, Robin B Trayler, Gabriele Larocca Conte, Sora L Kim, Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Alex Farnsworth, Paul J Valdes, Luis Chiappe, Aradhna Tripati

Published in

Science advances. Volume 12. Issue 38. Pages eaeb7653. Sep 18, 2026. Epub Sep 16, 2026.

Abstract

Despite an extensive history of study, quantitative constraints on the thermophysiology of Tyrannosaurus rex remain limited. Here, we derive a thermodynamically based determination of T. rex body temperatures from clumped isotopes in tooth enamel. Measurements of three T. rex teeth from the Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation yield a temperature of 36.3 ± 2.5°C (1 SE), comparable to modern endotherms. Teeth of coeval Hell Creek Formation crocodilians yielded temperatures significantly lower than did those of T. rex. Comparison with proxy-derived paleotemperatures and model simulations indicates that T. rex maintained a higher body temperature than its environment. Projected habitat suitability for T. rex based on these results shows that most of the North American paleocontinent, including colder and higher latitudes, were potentially accessible to the species.

PMID:
42748265
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.