ExtinctZoo - Could a T. Rex Survive In Lord Of The Rings?

Episode Date: July 25, 2026

Can they?

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The world and middle earth is one of the most fascinating to have ever been created. Its lands, past, and of course inhabitants, are some of the most intriguing out there. And if you've ever watched the films or read the books, you'll know that some of these residents can be quite strange. As large spiders, trolls, goblins, giant eagles, and more call it home, making it also an underappreciated ecosystem, in my opinion. And that got me wondering, what if you took what is arguably the mightiest terrestrial predator of all time, and dropped it into Middle Earth. What exactly would happen? And of course, I am talking about the king himself, the Tyrannosaurus rex. This beast of an animal has created one heck of a legacy for itself. And frankly, though some may find it overrated, I think its reputation is well deserved,

as we are talking about a predator unlike no other in many areas. For starters, this Goliath is as of now the largest land predator to have ever existed, with some specimens cracking 10 tons and measuring 13 meters or 43 feet long, possibly more. Which also, by the way, makes them among the longest thereopods when it comes down to length. And so obviously a giant size alone makes them quite a formidable animal, but its crowned achievement was the titanic jaws, no pun intended. Get it, crown, teeth? And these jaws that were built to pulverize its prey with its banana-like-sized teeth, which all came down of forces up to 57,000 newtons. So, the highest of any terrestrial animal ever, and 63 times

stronger than the force needed for a pocket knife to pierce your ribs. So yeah, there's no stopping this weapon. And this is evidenced by remains of large herbivores found in its stomach, whose bones have been pulverized into pieces the size of sand grains. And thanks to the overall size of its jaws, it was more than capable of taking massive chunks of flesh and bone out of contemporary dinosaurs, allowing it to kill or fatally injured prey far larger than a human in a single bite. So physically this was quite the beast, and this isn't even accounting for its ridiculously tank-like build, keen sense of smell, exceptional eagle-like vision, and a massively robust skeletal structure that made it one tough cookie. And as a whole package, it was able to become the king of late

Cretaceous North America. In other words, one of the toughest places to ever exist. And only a giant meteor hurtling through space seems to been able to stop it. So then my question is, what about Middle Earth? Would that be like the meteor or just a big nothing burger? In other words, how would it have fair? Would it be stopped in his tracks? Would it barely get by? Or would it thrive? And the answer in general depends a lot on what point in Middle Earth's history. As before Sauron's rule, you know that guy that became a tower with a giant out, there was the heir of his master, Melkor. And during that time things were, for example, far more grand and destructive, with many creatures simply being incomparable to a T-Rex, and in the reverse sense that is.

As you had things like dragons the size of planes, numerous massive giant spiders, Balrogs, which are also the giant demonic-looking things, and other mythical creatures, without even mentioning the number of sentient animals such as orcs, elves, etc., which ramped up the competition considerably. So, we're going to be nice with the T-Rex, and just take a look how it might have fared during the most famous time of Lord of the Rings. And that is the late Third Age, which is the setting of the books. And for simplicity's sake, we'll pretend that the T-Rex shut up in Middle Earth the day of Bilbo Bagan's 111th birthday birthday, because, of course, that's the best birthday present ever.

And so you now may be imagining just how confused the T-Rex would be if it's only found itself in Middle Earth living side by side with animals it's never seen before. But to be honest, its first shock wouldn't necessarily be the inhabitants of its new home, rather the radical change in weather, because as you may know, the T-Rex lived during a time when the planet was far warmer than it is now, with things like permanent ice sheets not even being a reality back then. And though the wrecks did live in places like Wyoming, which obviously can be cold now, back then its habitats tended to be subtropical and generally humid. And this would be a little bit of a problem for it to Middle Earth, as a lot of the lands ran a bit on the

colder side, let's say, and in some cases much colder. As in the far north, you had the ford waif, which was an immense region composed of jagged peaks. snow and ice, that also happened to be afflicted with magic from the ancient days, turning it into a desolate wasteland where survival for a T-Rex, or even really the vast majority of animals, would be generously considered a long shot. On a completely different, albeit kind of similar page, I doubt survival would be possible for any population of T-Rexes in Mordor as well, because as they say, one does not simply walk into Mordor, nor survive there.

And really there is one more reason as to why I don't think Mordor would work out for the Rex. As for starters, like the forward waif, Mordor is mainly a wasteland, and perhaps a worse way in some ways, as it's basically a Germany-sized area that's highly volcanic and dominated by the large volcano, Mount Doom, which as the name suggests, spews out doom in the form of lava and an abundance of noxious gases, ash, and soot, which is partially reason as to why Mordor is constantly blanketed in darkness, which basically disallows for any vegetation, and then the lava flows itself created a very rocky terrain. On top of this, Mordor was surrounded on almost all sides by a ring of large mountains,

which a T-Rex probably would not have a lot of fun trying to navigate. And that's not even mentioning the fact that their presence would create a rain shadow, turning the area into an unbearably arid and harsh climate, with the only options for food, namely being the minions and beasts of the chief resident of these parts. In other words, Sauron. And his presence is but another reason why I think Mordor may be a tad bit much for the Tyrannosaurus, with its likely best case scenario being that it would end up being kept as a pet. Now yes, Sauron lacked a physical body at this point, but his armies sure didn't, being composed of thousands upon thousands of orcs, trolls, the ring wraiths, fell beasts, and more.

Now that's said, as far as 1v1s go, I do like the T-Rex's chance against many of these creatures. As the single orc, or even some of the smaller kinds of trolls, would likely have great difficulty dealing with something the size of a wrecks, without even considering its bite, which again would have been strong enough to tear through thin sheets of armor or just outright crush someone wearing it. Now yes, the T-Rex has shown signs of being capable of ambushes, so it wouldn't have to necessarily take them all on at once, but this would be kind of hard to avoid considering the lack of cover in Mordor and the fact that Sarn's giant freaking eye and ring rates patrolled the wasteland, the latter of which also had access to their 30 to 40-foot-long fellbeasts, that could use their large powerful claws to antagonize a T-Rex from above, will then obviously staying airborne to mitigate any risks posed by the jaws.

Alternatively, it could go after the giant spider Shilob for a well-sized snack instead. But this would be a bit tricky given that she loved residence was in the mountains. And so given its ability to climb, or rather lack thereof, as well as the fact that this giant spider had potent venom, it probably wouldn't have gone too well. Now granted, in an open field, a fully grown Tyrannosaurus, probably could have had a good chance of dealing a killer blow without taking any, if not too much venom. But ultimately this is just one snack. It doesn't solve the food problem for good.

So basically I doubt a T-Rex has any hope of surviving here in the long run, but there is actually a southern region of Mordor, known as Nern. which was the breadbasket for Sauron, and it was far tamer than Mordor. And it would be here that is definitely the T-Rex's best shot in the region, seeing as that it was not a wasteland and had enslaved Homo sapiens that could be easy picking for a Rex. But again, something about a giant, fair pod showing up and eating people probably would cause quite a bit of outrage,

and eventually an organized hunt lead to the second extinction of the T-Rex. Now, where a T-Rex would likely have much better chances of surviving would be to the Westmordor, in Gondor. This large region is sometimes portrayed as being a bit chilly, but in reality it was actually first described as being predominantly warm and temperate, often being compared to the Mediterranean, having mild winters and long warm summers. So along with having far more negotiable weather for the wrecks, the biomes Gondor offered is also a lot more up this theropod's alley, too, as good a mix of grasslands, valleys, rivers, forests, and more, offering both open space, but then also

far more coverage for this titan of an animal. But like Mordor, you will still still find plenty of sentient life here as well, as the kingdom of Gondor is often considered the mightiest of human realms at the time, with large-scale cities such as Minas Tirith, Pellargear, and Dolom Roth being present. So yes, these areas which are abundant with people and livestock, could help defeat a T-Rex, but then you do run into the same problem with Mordor, in which that action would probably be taken at some point to stop a giant rampaging monster. And like the orcs, I don't think humans would have a major problem with this, considering

that ancient humans did in fact hunt giant elephants that were around the same size as a T-Rex, despite having less advanced technology than those in Gondor did. Yet, I will say that one thing going for the wrecks here is that Gondor beyond its major cities is actually not that densely populated, and there are plenty of sparsely inhabited areas where a Tyrannosaurus would need to worry that much about being hunted by monkeys with pointy sticks. However, in these safer areas there is now a new problem for a dinosaur friend, and that's the availability of viable prey. You see, the T-Rex evolved to take down literal giants of their own, such as the Amontosaurus and Triceratops, of which there were obviously none in Gondor, and virtually no native

animal here came close to rivaling their size, with most of the life being rather small, like rabbits, birds, deer, and boar. Well, then it's also possible that bears and other analogous animals lived here too. But because the Tyrannosaurus likely needed hundreds of pounds or Achilles and meat on average daily to survive, this would mean that just to sustain itself, it would need to hunt multiple times a day. and be successful at that. A challenge within a challenge of these prey are much more agile than what the T-Rex is used to.

The smaller and juvenile wrecks may not struggle as much in this area, as even abhorrent doing much against the juvenile wrecks, but again, the larger sizes, catching any of these animals would be tricky, and that's not even considering the fact that these animals are tiny compared to what the T-Rex actually needs. So yeah, long-term survival here, probably not great. And I think a similar challenge would be seen in the kingdom of Rohan as well. And in fact, I would say the situation is even tougher. Like Gondor, the region was significantly warmer than the forward wave, having long warm and bright summers,

while then winters were a thing, but not usually severe. And in any case, we do believe that the T-Rex could survive bouts of below-freezing weather, so maybe the climate isn't really a big deal to begin with. Yet, what was quite different about Rohan was its landscape, which was almost entirely made up of massive, expansive seas of grass, a biome that literally did not exist during the Cretaceous. Now, we have found bones of the T-Rex in areas associated with little to no-tuce. trees, like floodplains, but a grassland would be a big change of pace. And again, the big problem here is that these grasslands meant little place for a wrecks to hide. And given its size,

it would have been a very easy animal to spot here, sticking out like a giant sore thumb. Which is very bad news as the Roherim, i.e. the men of Rohan, actually patrol these vast grasslands on horseback. Now you... The Hulu original series Furious is coming to Disney Plus. Starring Emmy Rossum, Furious follows FBI agent Alice Bloss. on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine,

the line between right and wrong begins to blur. Don't miss the three-episode premiere of the Hulu original series Furious on July 27th, only on Hulu on Disney Plus. Yes, typically they aren't looking for dinosaurs, rather searching for orcs, wargs, and eastern crossings. If something tells me they wouldn't take too kindly to a T-Rex for a Mek. about, one that might have also possibly killed some of their people or livestock, and sadly, our Rex probably stands no chance against a mounted party.

However, when we do put the Roar Haram aside for a second, I do think that the region's fauna could be better suited for the Rex, as well never explicitly stated, this large expanse of grassland has historically on Earth has resulted in larger grazing animals, such as wild oxen, cattle, horses, etc. And yes, while none of these would be necessarily easy to catch or a surprise, for a far larger predator like the wrecks, there is the benefit that these animals tended to stick in herds. So, basically like a claw machine and an arcade. And while not conclusive, many paleontologists do believe that the T-Rex was at least capable,

it might have actually somewhat engaged in nighttime hunting, something that would shift the tides of catching food in its favor, as cattle and oxen are mainly diurnal animals, making them rather easy pickings at night. But to be clear, I still don't think long-term survival in Rohan is very likely either, given the lack of coverage, potentially sparse food, and frequent mouth patrols. And sadly for the wrecks, moving even more westwards wouldn't necessarily make things easier either, I'm afraid, as it would then enter the massive region in which the Shire resided.

Area Door. It was more northern than Gondor and Rohan, and while it had warm summers, the winters tended to be a bit cooler, especially in its more northern areas and higher terrains. Yet this said in the southern lowlands of Areiodore and along the coasts, the weather could be quite mild, making long-term survival and possibility, but still one with a question mark. But while the climate isn't necessarily as good as some of the other ones, one thing that can be pegged as good news for the wrecks is that Areador is basically a sprawling landmass of untamed nature, and little people, also literally, as Ariadore in the late

third aid was a bit of a dead area, having experienced the fall of Arnor, plagues, severe winters, and more, and as a result, it was a sparsely populated region. There were of course inhabited areas like the Shire, Rivendell, the dwarves of the Blue Mountains, and so on, but many of these locations were either quite sheltered off, small, or in areas that a T-Rex simply wouldn't venture. And so as a result, those less organized and sparsely populated vast region, the T-Rex would have had a better chance to, one, find a wild game, and then two, raid livestock and perhaps attack people or hobbits, with a less risk of a coordinated, wide-scale response.

So yeah, maybe a few T-Rexes could survive here for some time, but almost certainly not a large population. And even with a couple individuals, the chances are not guaranteed to be in their favor. And I think this is ultimately the best case in Ariadore, seeing that outside of domesticated animals and settlements, Ariadore didn't have a good answer to feeding a 10-ton predator, with the larger wildlife likely being composed of dears, boars, hairs, and possibly elk-like animals. Now that said, there were some large, slightly more interesting creatures that lurked around here too, namely trolls, as both stone and hill trolls could be found within certain parts. And these guys would be among the largest things the T-Rex would encounter in Ariadore,

with the trolls in the Hobbit, for example, being about 12 feet tall, possibly bit tall. taller. And though far less intelligent than man, they were capable of using both primitive gear and large weapons like clubs, hammers, and axes. And a strike from one of these guys would, no doubt, cause catastrophic damage to a T-Rex. But at the same time, if the T-Rex got a hold of a troll, maybe through an ambush, it would have a good chance as well of dealing out a crippling injury. Now, the one other unspoken positive here is that if this region was able to support giant trolls, then that might also point to other food sources that we might not be aware of that could to help the T-Rex survive as well.

And speaking of another large type of fantastical animal, you also had wargs here as well, a mythical intelligent yet evil kind of wolf that can be quite large, seemingly ranging from 300 pounds to roughly 1,000 pounds, which then also goes to make them a better-sized snack for T-Rex than most of the other animals found here. And unlike the weapon-wielding trolls, one of these guys probably still exactly 0% chance of taking out a Tyrannosaurus. But they did also roam in large organized packs and could even communicate in their own complex language, so I reckon that avoiding a T-Rex would also be quite easy.

Now, with all this said, I still think Aredor is in some ways the best place so far for a Rex of survival, as really there isn't that many great options. I guess you just need a very specific type of ecosystem to support the largest land predator of all time. And really, many of the places we see in the movies just would not cut it. For example, the vast forest of Merckwood would most likely be a quick yet horrible death sentence for a T-Rex, with the forefront issue being the extreme density of the trees, which formed a canopy that blocked out the sun. And at 12 meters long, a T-Rex would have essentially

no hope of maneuvering in such brush. And even the quote-unquote known paths were choked and strangled with vegetation, making movement even for Bilbo Baggins party, which consisted of much smaller individuals, quite tricky. You then also had the familiar problem at this point of there being very slim pickings when it came to prey, with most animals being on the smaller side, is that a maneuver around in this dense forest, and then while the larger animals here might actually prove to be lethal to a T-Rex. And that would be giant spiders. Because as we saw in the Hobbit, giant spiders called this forest home. And though a single one was not comparable to the size or deadliness of a T-Rex, they did

usually live in congregations, unlike most real spiders, and also had some very nasty venom. And to add insult to injury, of the time of the third age, orcs also inhabited the fortress of Dolgildur, which was essentially south of the forest and made that place off limits, while then wood elves also lived here too. And elves per capita would arguably be the hardest single humanoid, bar perhaps a troll, for a T-Rex to kill, as their agility speed and expertise of projectiles would make them quite the tough opponent. We even see in the movies at least that a single elf, the homie legolice, was able to take down

an olefant all by himself, something that was 15 meters or 45 feet tall and powerful enough to carry large multi-level platforms on its back, while then tossing horses and their riders around like they were tin cans. So yeah, this area is probably not too promising, and the Misty Mountains also don't seem to be that promising either, considering it's, well, mountains, which the T-Rex definitely would not have liked to live in, and the fact that the inhabitants here includes a Balrog, which has a giant flaming body complete with a flaming sword and armor, well then you also had giants made a stone, so unedible and likely very hard to fight against, and then great eagles as well,

who primarily resided here using the slopes for their nests. And so considering that fact, something tells me that to be quite territorial about a giant, seemingly wingless dragon showing up. And since we do know they were able to fight the fell beasts and were freaking Titanic eagles, could carry it literal people on their backs, I think they could probably at least scare off a T-Rex. So yeah, as you might have noticed by now, a T-Rex surviving Middle Earth may not be as easy as one would expect off the rip. But it does beg the question then, of which place, period, offer the best chance overall. And I do think there is an argument here that the better places

for survival are areas not really mentioned in the movies, with one of these locations being Rune, and specifically the area around its sea. Rune was a large region to the far east, that was home to the Easterlings during the Third Age, and home to the large inland sea of, well, ruin. This inland sea provided a great amount of fresh water, seeing that connected to it was the river running, and thus the lands around it were exceptionally fertile, mostly being composed as step in plain environments, while then the presence of the inland sea likely helped to regulate the climate and keep things less extreme year round.

And that's obviously all nice and everything, but the real plus here was the prey options, as you likely had the usual large herds of cattle, livestock, horses, and similar animals, but then you also had something unique, the kind of ara. These were mythical species of oxen that lived on the plains around the Sea of Rune, and were very well known for their size, which was described as being far larger and splendid than normal oxen, with them also sporting colossal horns. And while we never got exact measurements on these animals, they have often been compared to the real extinct aurochs, who at one point in time could have weighed up to 1.5 tons. Now yes, the colossal horns throw a slight wrinkle in the T-Rex's plans, but you have to remember

this is the wrecks we're talking about. Something was specialized in taking down giant armed herbivores, including, you know, that very famous one with giant horns known as the Triceratops. So an arox-sized oxen should really be no problem. Now moving on from ruin, you also then had the area known as the Hayrad, which in some ways was promising too. This was a vast land of the south of Gondor that was characterized by two regions, the near Near Hayrad and the Far Hayrad.

Yes, very creative. Now the former region, the near Hayrad, doesn't sound all that great, as the climate tended to be semi-to-hyper-arid and dominated by deserts, dunes, and rocky terrain, while then also powerful human factions ruled here as well, meaning the T-Rex was constantly worry about the sun, lack of water, lack of megafauna, and then the frustrating bipedles were sharp sticks. Yet the Far Hayrad, on the other hand, is in some ways quite promising. Tolkien did a right a whole lot about its mysterious land, but from what we do know, it seems

to a region of hot weather, savannas, and jungles, going off the assumption that it was ascension analog for sub-Saharan Africa. And if we do roll with this, we come to the possibility that like the region of Earth today, this place in Lord of the Rings could have been home to numerous megafauna, that a T-rex could then take its pick from. Now, admittedly, there is not a whole lot of talk of what said megafauna were in Lord of the Rings universe, but one we do know that was both a megafauna, and lived here, was the Oliphons, giant elephant-like creatures from the return of the king. In the movies, they're absolutely giant. creatures, rivaling the size and weight of the largest starpods of all time.

And while it is cool to imagine elephants of this size, if we go off of the book, and yes I'm a purist, they likely were not this large. And actually in a letter written by Tolkien, he said they were large elephants of prehistoric sizes, which therefore could make them more comparable to say the Paleo-Loxedon-Nomaticus rather than a massive sarapod. And this would actually favor the T-Rex, as unlike one of the biggest starpods of all time, the paleooxedon nomadicus was an animal that was within hunting range. Now if you know anything about the nomadicus, and if you don't, I have a video about it so you should go check it out,

you would know that it was nothing to be underestimated, and it was actually larger than a T-Rex, period. And it also had some wickly long tusks, so hunting a full, healthy large male would probably not be in the best interest of this predator. But just like many predators do, it could instead hunt juveniles, sub-adults, and sick adults. And for once, we might have finally found a place that would have had enough viable prey that a T-Rex couldn't actually survive here, without relying on livestock. And as I said, if this region actually had more megafauna, like what's seen in sub-Saharan Africa, its chances would be even better. So yeah, moral of the story is that T-Rex and Lord of the Rings is probably not great for the wrecks. And it's kind of ironic that the best place seems to be the place we hear way less about. But that's just how the cookie crumble

sometimes. Thanks for watching. Until next time, on Extinct Zoo. Car shopping this Civic Holiday weekend. Most car dealerships are closed and all you'll find are crickets. Not Performance Auto Group. They're open this Saturday and Holiday Monday for their annual Civic Holiday Sales event. Celebrate this long weekend with rates from 0%. They might be closed. Performance Auto Group is open to serve you.

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