T Rex

Weight: Up to 14 tons

Length: Up to 45 ft

Height: Up to 20 ft

Native to: Aztlan

Social Unit: Pack

Status: Lower Risk (Pre-Xibalba), Critically Endangered (Post-Xibalba)

Native to: Aztlan

Habitat: Valleys, Jungle, Plains, and Other Low-altitude Habitats

The T Rex is the most feared land predator in the entire South Galaxy, bar none. Others like Vigam's Goatweaver Tarantula, Atlantea's Thylacoleo, Arturia's Kelpie, and Olympia's Hydra all simply pale in comparison to the reputation this massive carnivorous dinosaur has earned itself. Despite being smaller than the Giganotosaurus, T Rex hunt in packs and generally view entire villages of sentients as prey, while Giganotosaurus operates alone and typically hunts sauropod dinosaurs much larger than itself, making T Rex much more known and feared than its larger counterparts.

T Rex live in the lower-altitude regions of Aztlan, such as the southern jungles, the valleys between the mountains, and the "tierra fria" uplands, preying on a diverse range of prey ranging from Triceratops to Capybaras to Llamas. They rarely venture into the cold and dry Altiplano, where the temperatures are low and the lack of trees robs T Rex of the element of surprise. There, the Giganotosaurus is king. Although they could survive the harsh climate of the snowy mountain forests above the Altiplano, any T Rex venturing into that ecosystem would face competition with the Yutyrannus, its smaller cousin much more adapted for that type of environment.

Physically, the T Rex very much resembles a larger, heavier-built version of its Yutyrannus cousin, sporting serrated teeth, a massive lizardlike head, coat of feathers, two massive hindlegs that carry all of the beast's weight, and two short vestigial forelimbs that serve no real purpose. However, the feathering of the T Rex is much thinner than that of the Yutyrannus, and is mostly for display (and camouflage as chicks) rather than heat conservation. As a general rule, the warmer the area the T Rex lives in, the more colorful their plumage is, with color varying by individual. Common to all T Rex, however, is slate-blue scaly skin and ominous all-black eyes in adulthood.

While female T Rex lack manes, males have 2 different-but-always-brightly-colored manes by adulthood. The lower mane starts growing less than a week after hatching and covers the entire neck, chin, throat, chest, and upper back by the time they are little more than a month old. The upper mane begins growing much more slowly on the forehead during childhood and gradually covers the entire forehead, neck, chest, and upper back regions, leaving the lower mane exposed only on the chin and throat.

T Rex packs typically consist of one female and multiple males, with the female being the "lead hen" in charge of the pack. She decides where the pack goes, what and when they hunt, and which water sources to drink from. Meetings between packs are usually violent, as each pack sees others as competition for food, and will gladly turn their 13-inch serrated teeth and literally unmatched bite force on other packs. This often results in T Rex sustaining grisly injuries or dying in such brawls, and in some cases, victorious T Rex packs have been known to cannibalize the bodies of the losers.

What makes T Rex so feared, especially on Aztlan, is the fact that they actively hunt sentients. Using jungle or forest cover, a T Rex pack will approach a sentient village, and attack at sunset or twilight. In the ensuing confusion, they will attempt to gobble up as many sentients and their livestock as they can catch before they are driven off by warriors. While rewarding, these sentient hunts are dangerous, often resulting in T Rex being clubbed, trapped, poisoned, or speared to death. Atlatls and arrows are particularly effective against T Rex, as they allow sentients to hit the beasts without risking being hit themselves.

As a result of this behavior, the Aztlanians often refer to the T Rex as the tlacuani, or "the one who eats". While sentients are preyed upon by T Rex packs at times, they are much more interested in larger prey, particularly Triceratops, which they hunt by having the lead hen distract them from the front while the two males rush at the defenseless sides to deliver killing bites. In order to stay well-fed, an individual T Rex needs upwards of 1,000 lbs of food per day. As a result, they have evolved the strongest bite force of any known animal in the entire South Galaxy, capable of exerting almost 13,000 lbs (7.5 tons) of force with their jaws.

During the winter, the lead hen of a pack will mate with either of the 2 males in her pack, alternating every year. 15-20 Eggs are laid in the spring and are incubated by the lead hen, who builds a nest for them in jungle or forest undergrowth. While the egg is being incubated, the 2 males are sent out hunting to bring back food for themselves and the lead hen. The eggs typically hatch in the middle of summer and the resulting chicks follow the pack around for about a year before they are kicked out and forced to fend for themselves.

T Rex chicks grow slowly at first, only reaching 600 lbs in weight and 8 ft in height when they are about 10 years old. However, they hit a massive growth spurt around this time, weighing in at over 5 tons and reaching up to 13 ft in height by the time they reach 20 years of age, reaching sexual maturity at around this point. Over 90% of T Rex reach their full size by the time they turn 27 years old, and T Rex can live for up to 40 years in the wild (though frequent fights between packs often shorten this).

As T Rex chicks are quite small and helpless in their early years (hatching out of their eggs around the size of turkeys), their feathers are markedly different from those of adults and adolescents in that they are much more focused on providing camouflage, as young T Rex are particularly vulnerable to predation by creatures such as Jaguars, Allosaurus, and even larger T Rex.

The T Rex is also famed for its unsettling roar, which despite what it is called, sounds much more like an eerie, low scream than a roar. Not as noisy as their much louder Yutyrannus cousins, T Rex can exist for hours at a time in deep forest or jungle completely undetected, only announcing their presence with a roar as they make an attack.

Despite the obvious dangers of these creatures, some peoples in Aztlan's jungle have found a use for these beasts. Village shamans often keep packs around villages, carefully training entire packs to go out hunting and bring back massive animal corpses to the village for sentient consumption, sort of using the beasts like massive falconer's birds. Without even realizing it, these villagers have sort of halfway-selectively bred the beasts for tameness around sentients, as more dangerous T Rex are killed off by warriors for attacking sentients or their livestock. Despite training and some domestication being present in the gene pool, these beasts are still not fully tame and often attack and eat the very shamans training them. As a result, being a T Rex shaman is seen as a foolhardy and downright suicidal job in a lot of villages, though those who become successful at it find themselves the subjects of intense admiration and sometimes even outright worship.

Although T Rex was once common across all of Aztlan's lower altitudes, the urban development of the valley surrounding Lake Coxcote has resulted in a drop of numbers there in recent years.

To help intimidate their prey, T Rex have evolved a special protein that turns even their irises and the whites of their eyes black, though this protein does not color the eyes this way until adulthood.

When the asteroid Xibalba struck the planet of Aztlan, the T Rex was one of the hardest-hit animals, as it sat at the top of the food chain. By the time the New Aztlanian Government was able to do a count of the remaining T Rex in the wild, they had become completely extirpated from the valley surrounding Lake Coxcote, and was critically endangered elsewhere, surviving only in isolated, small pockets in the southern jungle and in isolated forests and valleys. While the species was eventually able to be saved from extinction (some have even been reintroduced to the valley surrounding Lake Coxcote), its numbers today have still not recovered to their pre-Xibalba levels.