Growth pattern

Growth pattern


A graph showing the hypothesized growth curves (body mass versus age) of four tyrannosaurids, with Albertosaurus drawn in red[4]
Most age categories of Albertosaurus are represented in the fossil record. Using bone histology, the age of an individual animal at the time of death can often be determined, allowing growth rates to be estimated and compared with other species. The youngest known Albertosaurus is a two-year-old discovered in the Dry Island bonebed, which would have weighed about 50 kilograms (110 lb) and measured slightly more than 2 metres (7 ft) in length. The 10 metre (33 ft) specimen from the same quarry is the oldest and largest known, at 28 years of age. When specimens of intermediate age and size are plotted on a graph, an S-shaped growth curve results, with the most rapid growth occurring in a four-year period ending around the sixteenth year of life, a pattern also seen in other tyrannosaurids. The growth rate during this phase was 122 kilograms (268 lb) per year, based on an adult 1.3 tonnes (1.4 short tons). Other studies have suggested higher adult weights; this would affect the magnitude of the growth rate but not the overall pattern. Tyrannosaurids similar in size to Albertosaurus had similar growth rates, although the much larger Tyrannosaurus rex grew almost five times faster (601 kilograms [1325 lb] per year) at its peak.[3] The end of the rapid growth phase suggests the onset of sexual maturity in Albertosaurus, although growth continued at a slower rate throughout the animals' lives.[3][4] Sexual maturation while still actively growing appears to be a shared trait among small[22] and large[23] dinosaurs as well as in large mammals such as humans and elephants.[23] This pattern of relatively early sexual maturation differs strikingly from the pattern in birds, which delay their sexual maturity until after they have finished growing.[18][23]


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