T. rex said to have strongest bite ever

LIVERPOOL, England, Feb. 29 (UPI) -- Tyrannosaurus rex had the most powerful bite of any creature that ever walked the Earth, say British scientists who studied the dinosaur's skull structure.

While some scientists had believed the bite of the prehistoric predator was much more modest, close to modern predators such as alligators, the new research revealed its biting pressure was around three tons.

"That's equivalent to a medium-sized elephant sitting on you," researcher Karl Bates from the University of Liverpool told the BBC.

The researchers made a digital scan of a life-sized copy of a T. rex skeleton exhibited at Manchester Museum to create a 3D computer model of the skull.

"Then we could map the muscles onto that skull," Bates said.

The researchers reproduced the full force of a bite by activating the muscles to contract fully and snap the digital jaws shut.

The biting power of an adult T. rex suggests it could have punctured the tough hide of another dinosaur, they said.

The findings have been published in the journal Biology Letters.