By By JohnThomas Didymus Mar 2, 2012 in Science Liverpool - Scientists say one of the largest of predatory carnivores ever to walk Earth, Tyrannosaurus rex, had the most powerful bite of any terrestrial animal in the history of the Earth. To answer questions about the strength of Tyrannosaurus rex bite, a group of researchers did a study in which they used computer models to reconstruct the jaws of the animal and estimate its bite force. According to the Tyrannosaurus rex "Sue" displayed at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Christophe Hendrickx According to Fossil/cast Tyrannosaurus Rex at the Royal Tyrell Museum in Alberta, Canada. Pierre Camateros According to the The researchers also compared the bite performance of juvenile T. rex with the adult and found that even when differences in muscle size were factored in, juveniles had relatively weaker bites than adults. This suggested to the researchers that feeding habits of T. rex changed as they mature. The computer models, according to But the researchers also pointed out that the fact that T. rex jaws could apply a maximum force of 35,000 to 57, 000 does not mean that it actually did. Bates said that in spite of this limitation, T. rex "lives up to its reputation as a ferocious biter." Jaw of Megalodon Spotty11222 But there is a prehistoric marine predator believed to have had stronger jaws and bite than T.rex, according to experts. The prehistoric Artistic impression of megalodon Karen Carr Researchers have in the past raised several questions about the 40-foot-long carnivore. Some have questioned the animal's mobility on land, saying that it could only plod along, while some have said the predator had such a weak bite that it must have been a scavenger rather than the terrible predatory lizard it is imagined to be.To answer questions about the strength of Tyrannosaurus rex bite, a group of researchers did a study in which they used computer models to reconstruct the jaws of the animal and estimate its bite force. According to the researchers , they did a comparative study in which they scaled up the skull of a human, alligator, juvenile T. rex and Allosaurus to the size of an adult T. rex. An animal's bite force is determined mostly by the size of its jaw muscles. They found that scaling up increased the bite forces as predicted for all the models. But non increased as much as T. rex jaws even when they allowed for a wide margin of error in estimating its jaw muscles (since the exact strength of Tyrannosaurus jaw muscles was not known to the researchers).According to lead researcher Karl Bates , a computational anatomist at the Department of Musculo-skeletal Biology of the University of Liverpool, UK : "The power of the T. rex jaw has been a much debated topic over the years. Scientists only have the skeleton to work with, as muscle does not survive with the fossil, so we often have to rely on statistical analysis or qualitative comparisons to living animals, which differ greatly in size and shape from the giant enigmatic dinosaurs like T. rex. As these methods are somewhat indirect, it can be difficult to get an objective insight into how dinosaurs might have functioned and what they may or may not have been capable of in life...To build on previous methods of analysis, we took what we knew about T. rex from its skeleton and built a computer model that incorporated the major anatomical and physiological factors that determine bite performance. We then asked the computer model to produce a bite so that we could measure the speed and force of it directly. We compared this to other animals of smaller body mass and also scaled up smaller animals to the size of T. rex to compare how powerful it was in relative terms.Our results show that the T. rex had an extremely powerful bite, making it one of the most dangerous predators to have roamed our planet. Its unique musculoskeletal system will continue to fascinate scientists for years to come."According to the study , even when the researchers used the smallest values for muscle strength, the smallest bite force predicted was 20,000 Newtons, more than three times the force of an alligator bite. The largest values yielded bite force estimates as high as 57,000 Newtons, more than ten times the force of an alligator bite.The researchers also compared the bite performance of juvenile T. rex with the adult and found that even when differences in muscle size were factored in, juveniles had relatively weaker bites than adults. This suggested to the researchers that feeding habits of T. rex changed as they mature.The computer models, according to National Geographic , suggested that T. rex adults were capable of maximum bite force of 35,000 to 57,000 newtons at the back teeth, more than four times higher than previous estimates, and about the force of a well-sized elephant sitting on the ground.But the researchers also pointed out that the fact that T. rex jaws could apply a maximum force of 35,000 to 57, 000 does not mean that it actually did. National Geographic reports that according to Bates, the structural strength of the T. rex skull would limit how much stress it could take while applying biting force.The animal would simply not continue applying force to the extent of hurting itself.Bates said that in spite of this limitation, T. rex "lives up to its reputation as a ferocious biter."But there is a prehistoric marine predator believed to have had stronger jaws and bite than T.rex, according to experts. The prehistoric megalodon ("megatooth") shark with length of up to 50 feet (16 meters) and weight up to 30 times the largest modern sharks, are believed to have had jaws that could exert bite force more than three times that of T. rex. The Megalodon lived about 16 million years ago. More about Tyrannosaurus rex, Bite, Most powerful More news from Tyrannosaurus rex Bite Most powerful