Serrated 3.49" Tyrannosaurus (T-Rex) Tooth - Montana

This is a robust Tyrannosaurus rex tooth collected from our partners' private lease on the Late Cretaceous-aged Hell Creek Formation in Eastern Montana. It measures 3.49" long (straightline) and bears gorgeous brown and orange coloration and spots of serration preservation along each edge. Some feeding wear can be found along the lingual face near the tip. True T. rex teeth are some of the most sought-after and collectible fossils out there. When we get them in they are typically sold within hours.

This tooth has undergone some restoration in spots, with gap fill restoration making up approximately 5% of the tooth. It was found separated into multiple pieces within the rock. To piece back together, some gap fill was used in areas where small tooth fragments weren't recovered.


Perhaps the most famous of all dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex (abbreviated as T.rex, not T-Rex) was the largest terrestrial carnivore in North America 66 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous period. Reaching adult sizes of 39-42 feet and 7-9 tons, this formidable predator was also one of the largest terrestrial carnivores to ever live, second only to the African Spinosaurus and possibly rivaled by the South American Giganotosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus was likely an opportunistic predator, hunting when it could and scavenging when it couldn't, using its fantastic senses of sight and smell to track potential meals. When it did need to hunt, it had a pair of powerful jaws full of 6-inch teeth that could deliver over 4 tons of pressure per square inch when they bit down. Their arms, by comparison, are infamously small.

Tyrannosaurus rex is known from an abundance of well-articulated specimens, including juveniles and subadults, so their growth patterns are well documented. It seems Tyrannosaurus grew relatively quickly, the first ten years reaching about a tenth of their adult size, then rapidly growing to their titanic adult forms in another ten. Based on growth signs in adult specimens, it would seem that Tyrannosaurs rarely lived to be more than thirty: most specimens died in their mid to late twenties. Based on pathologies of fossil bone, we can deduce that this was at least in part due to their dangerous adult lifestyle. Preying on well defended herbivores like Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, and large Hadrosaurs would have been a difficult undertaking, and healed injuries on the bones of these herbivores show that the hunts were not always successful.

Nevertheless, this great predator was one of the largest and most fearsome of the carnivorous dinosaurs, and living at the end of their age, it comes as no surprise that it be dubbed such an imposing name as "Tyrant Lizard King".

Because of its age and sedimentary composition, the Hell Creek Formation has become one of the most paleontologically studied areas in the world. 158 genera of animals and 64 genera of plants are known from the formation and new discoveries are made frequently. In addition to Tyrannosaurs, Ceratopsids, and Hadrosaurs, the formation has yielded remains of amphibians, reptiles, lizards, snakes and turtles, fish and sharks, avian and non-avian dinosaurs, and mammals. The Hell Creek Formation gives the most complete understanding of the environment just before the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Tyrannosaurus rex
LOCATION
Eastern Montana
FORMATION
Hell Creek Formation
SIZE
3.49" tooth
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#246275
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