Undoubtedly, dinosaurs and humans never coexisted, although some of the latter may consider this statement to be true. The enormous reptiles disappeared from the Earth's surface due to catastrophic climate changes caused by the impact of the Chicxulub asteroid 66 million years ago. It was not until 63 million years later that bipedal primates, such as the famous Lucy, began to appear in East Africa.
Nevertheless, the very idea of coexisting with dinosaurs is so fascinating that scientists cannot help but wonder what it might have looked like. For example, how much food would the great and terrible Tyrannosaurus rex consume daily? Louis Villazon, a zoologist by training and a robotics enthusiast, attempted to answer this question.
Since little is known about Tyrannosaurs, it is worth first looking at the diets of modern predators and their nutritional needs. For instance, an adult crocodile in its prime needs to consume 5% of its body weight each week. A lion, on the other hand, requires 25% because it is a warm-blooded animal.
Louis Villazon suggested that the metabolism of the Tyrannosaurus is somewhere in between. Thus, the reptile would need an amount of meat that constitutes 15% of its body weight. The average Tyrannosaurus weighed 7 tons, therefore it would require about a ton of meat per week. Dividing 1000 kilograms by 7 gives approximately 143 kilograms each day.
Answer: a Tyrannosaurus would eat the equivalent of two people daily.
