Who was the strongest dinosaur?

Was T. Rex the strongest dinosaur ever to live? This was an excellent question posed by one of our more clever readers. The question seemed simple enough, but the more I thought about it, the tougher the answer became. I replied back to the reader that I would have to do some research first. After all, what do we mean by "strongest?"

When you compare yourself to an ant, for example, you can safely say that you are stronger. I mean, look at how much bigger you are! There is no way that ant is going to push you around! But some species of ants can carry many times their own weight! Can you do that? Probably not! So when you think about strength compared to size, the ant is stronger. We call this a strength-to-weight "ratio." A ratio is a number that is generated by comparing two different measures. (Your mom and dad may have to help explain what I just said, and if you can understand that, then you are smarter than a lot of grownups, because ratios like this are not always easy to understand!)

Since size is a big part of strength, let's start with the biggest dinosaur, Argentinosaurus, from Argentina (get your parents to show you where that is!). He was a plant eater, 126 feet long and weighing over 100 tons! It would take a lot of strength to move that much weight around, don't you think? He looked a lot like Billy here.

 

 

 

 

 

T.Rex was one of the largest, most powerful meat eaters. One thing that made him seem strong was that he was FEROCIOUS! But was he the strongest meat eater? Hm. That's hard to tell, but there was one that was bigger - Gigantosaurus, also from Argentina. He lived in the same area as Argentinosaurus, and probably had him for lunch!

Bones have recently been found in the same area that might be from an even BIGGER meat eater! If it turns out to be a new dinosaur we will definitely let you know! For a small, but strong dinosaur, don't forget the velociraptors from Jurassic Park. Remember them? They were very agile, and could leap quite high for their small size.

We will keep the Paleo news section updated as new information on strong dinosaurs is discovered. Keep checking back!