The Tyrant Chicken

Tyrannosaurus rex.

The mere mention of its name brings a profound sense of fear and awe to children and adults alike. The Tyrant King. The great theropod from the late Cretaceous. Everyone's favorite dinosaur. The biggest, baddest land carnivore in history...

...right?

Well, not exactly.

T Rex is a very well known carnivore, with several nearly complete skeletons found and a grip on popular imagination that will probably never be broken. And it was a fearsome killer, for sure. One of the biggest and strongest and most fearsome that ever walked on this planet.

ONE OF the most fearsome. Not THE most fearsome. In fact, there were several dinosaurs that bested the mighty T Rex in that arena, including Gigantosaurus carolinii and Carcharodontosaurus saharicus.

But the title of biggest & baddest, at least for now, goes to another meat-eater from the Cretaceous, a horrifying killer from what is now North Africa called Spinosaurus aegyptiacus.

This was one bad-ass rock & roller, this guy. At 59 feet long and almost 10 tons, this crocodile-mouthed monster was significantly bigger and stronger than T Rex, and if there were any doubts left of his bad-ass-ness, Spino had a giant sail on his back, 7 feet tall and probably colored vibrant red or purple.

Nothing would have gone anywhere near this thing on purpose, let alone try to take it on. No, Spinosaurus was the real Tyrant King. I hate to admit it, but my childhood hero has been demoted.