I want to show you some of the various “Tyrannosaurs” that have passed for true and scientifically accurate reconstructions. I’m finding the logistics a bit tricky, so wish me luck.
This was Settled Science in the 1800s. The statue is supposed to be Megalosaurus, the first dinosaur to be given a scientific name; but it belongs to the same general group as Tyrannosaurus and one could be easily mistaken for the other. This was the monster featured in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World.
In the 1940s we had Rudolph Zallinger’s T. rex in his mural at the Peabody Museum, and toy makers stuck to his reconstruction–complete with huge beer-belly. Zallinger’s mural is awe-inspiring. I’m afraid the toy was not.
In the 1950s and 60s, T. rex shed his beer belly and learned to stand bolt-upright like a human being. Here he is in The Land Unknown (1957), one of my absolute favorite movies when I was eight years old.
Jurassic Park and its sequels gave us a Tyrannosaurus that was really scary, it could’ve eaten all the earlier models for breakfast. The science kept changing; and movie-making special effects technology changed even fast. However, T. rex was not going to be allowed to rest on these laurels
I call this the Skid Row Tyrannosaur. To me it looks like a giant wino. Slathering greasy, shabby feathers all over it doesn’t help at all. But if history is any guide, this monstrosity will be superseded–hopefully by something better. Or at least less unsightly.