According to scientists, Tyrannosaurus rex had the most powerful bite of any creature that has ever walked the Earth. And yes, it trumps that of a deadly alligator or great white Shark.  

Previous measurements of the prehistoric predator’s bite estimated it to be comparable to modern predators such as the alligator, but a recent study has revealed a different story. Findings published in the journal Biology Letters show that the bite of the T.rex is actually equivalent to three tonnes – about the weight of an elephant.

Dr Karl Bates from the biomechanics laboratory at the University of Liverpool, who carried out the research along with his colleague Peter Falkingham from the University of Manchester,used the life-sized copy of a T.rex skeleton exhibited at Manchester Museum as a model for their study.

“We digitised the skull with a laser scanner, so we had a 3-D model of the skull on our computer,” Dr Bates told BBC News.

“Then we could map the muscles onto that skull…those muscles closed the jaw as they would in life and we measured the force when the teeth hit each other,” he explained.

The maximum forces that were found by the team – up at the back teeth – were between 30,000 and 60,000 Newtons. They claim this is equivalent to a medium-sized elephant sitting on you.Previous studies had estimated that T. rex’s bite had a force of 8,000-13,000 Newtons.

So next time you hear of a person having a chunk taken out of them by a great white shark, consider them lucky. Well sort of anyway.