Growth and Age Dinosaurs ~ No one knows for sure how fast dinosaurs grew, how long they took to reach full size, or how long they lived. Most estimates of dinosaur growth rates and ages come from comparisons with today's reptiles.
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| Tyrannosaurus may have taken 20-50 years to reach adult size |
Some reptiles today continue to grow throughout their lives, although their growth rate slows with age. Dinosaurs may have grown fast as youngsters and slower as adults, never quite stopping until they died.
Estimates for the age of a full-grown meat-eater such as Tyrannosaurus range from 20 to more than 50 years. Full-grown, small meat-eaters such as Compsognathus may have lived to be only 3-10 years old.
A giant sauropod probably lived to be 50 years old, or even over 100 years old. Like many reptiles today, a dinosaurs growth rate probably depended largely on its food supply.
Dinosaurs probably ate a lot and grew fast when food was plentiful, and slowed down when food was scerce. During its lifetime, a big sauropod such as Brachiosaurus would have increased its weight 2000 times (compared to 20 times in human).
See also about Dinosaur Fossil-Hunters
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