Humans Have Something in Common With T. Rex

Using fossilized teeth, scientists have finally taken the T. rex's temperature—and it wasn't too different from our own. Readings from three teeth revealed an average body temperature of about 97 degrees Fahrenheit, per the AP. That's similar to modern elephants and close to the average body temperature of humans, which ranges from 97 to 99 degrees Fahrenheit. The study, published in Science Advances, relied on chemical clues in the teeth: It turns out that atoms within the enamel clump together in different patterns based on an animal's body temperature.

"We figured out how warm the most famous animal of all, a T. rex, was," said co-author Aradhna Tripati, a geochemist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Knowing how hot or cold the Tyrannosaurus rex was can help scientists piece together how the dinosaur might have lived. At 97 degrees, T. rex could have lived across most of prehistoric North America, maintaining a stable internal temperature across both cooler and hotter regions. The findings could also shed light on the kinds of prey the dinosaur had to hunt in order to keep its energy up. Scientists say it'll be important to test these methods on other dinosaurs to see how warm or cold they ran. It's possible T. rex's temperature could have been one of the keys to its dominance.