#480 – Dave Hone: T-Rex, Dinosaurs, Extinction, Evolution, and Jurassic Park
Episode publishedPodcast: Lex Fridman PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
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The following is a conversation with Dave Hone, a paleontologist, expert on dinosaurs, cohost of the terrible lizards podcast, and author of many scientific papers and books on the behavior and ecology of dinosaurs. This was truly a fun and fascinating conversation. And now, a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description or at lexfreedman.com/sponsors. It's the best way to support this podcast. We got Lindy for AI agents, BetterHelp for mental health, Shopify for selling stuff online, Element for electrolytes, and AG one for my daily multivitamin. Choose wisely m
It's gigantic. It's almost trite now because everyone knows T. Rex is massive. But, yes, if you actually stand in front of one, you would be seriously impressed just how absolutely vast they are. So I've got a copy of a T. Rex skull downstairs from my office. And, yeah, I I could fit comfortably through its mouth. So it would be just about capable of swallowing me whole, and I'm a pretty big guy. Your body,
you can fit in the tooth's mouth?
I can fit through it. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not even a particularly big one. It's a copy of the one that's in the Smithsonian, and they get bigger than that.
You have a two scale copy
Yeah. Yeah. Of what? Yeah. It's a it's a cast. Was just a giant mold made, and then Nice. Pulled out like the dentist do your teeth, but very, very big. So, yeah, they are meters long. So what's that? 14 yards, four and a half, maybe five to the top of the head standing up, so another six yards high, and then seven ish metric tons. What's that? About eight and a half short tons. So a colleague of mine, Tom Holtz, described them as an orca on land. That that's it. It is a killer whale sized animal, but on legs, on land, and those are massive predators. So you're looking at something absolutely
So is a T. Rex bigger than an elephant? Would that be fair to say?
Yeah. I mean, a a very large Savannah African elephant is five to six tons, and we're looking at seven plus. And a biped and a carnivore. So, yeah, you know, a a big lion a big lion is two hundred kilos, so four hundred and thirty pounds.
Yeah. Well, that's what that's why I mean, it's widely considered to be probably the most epic predator in the history of Earth.
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