When you imagine the days when Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaurs roamed the Earth, you probably think of them being everywhere. Walk a couple blocks, and a T. Rex would appear. RAWR!
A Berkeley study recently estimated that the population of T. Rexes was 20,000 adults at any given time. That sounds like a lot, but consider them spread out over all over the vast space of the North American continent. (Also, I learned that T. Rex dinosaurs were only in North America)
Considering this wide space, how far apart would each T. Rex be? The same Berkeley studied estimated the average population density was about one dinosaur for every 100 square kilometers. (38.6 square miles). That’s roughly 6 × 6 miles.
In Chicago that covers Madison to Foster, Lakeshore to Cicero (Google map).
That’s a large space for just one T Rex to roam! If the Nest app existed back then, you can imagine that people would always be posting T Rex sightings (much like how people today in the suburbs constantly use Nest to report coyote sightings).
If you happened to come across a T. Rex, don’t worry. Another recent study says because of their tail, the T. rex walked slower than a human. You could outrun a T. Rex simply by walking! If that’s true, the local T. Rex would become an amusing backdrop for social media selfies.