Tyrannosaurus Rex Was Warm-Blooded and Able to Live in the Arctic, Study Finds

It was once widely believed that dinosaurs were all cold-blooded creatures, since they were classified as reptiles. But there is an increasing amount of evidence to the contrary, though scientists still don’t know the exact body temperatures of most dinosaurs. A domino in that discussion appears to have fallen, with a new study from researchers at UCLA that says the Tyrannosaurus rex had a similar body temperature to humans.

The research, published Wednesday in Science Advances, was done in cooperation with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, which provided teeth from Thomas the T. rex, a 34-foot-tall, 66-million-year-old specimen found in Montana in 2003 and one of the most complete in the world.

Researchers from UCLA measured isotopic signatures on the tooth enamel to determine the giant predator’s body temperature.

According to Robert Eagle, co-author of the study and associate professor at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment...

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