Could a giant gorilla actually fight 3 tyrannosaurs?

[Eric]

So I watched King Kong today, the recent one by Peter Jackson. Good movie, but one thing struck me about it. Being the stickler for realism that I am, I have to wonder if a 25-foot tall Gorilla could actually fight off three adult Tyrannosaur Rex (Rexs? Rexes? Rexii?)

First all, the matter of strength. An adult Gorilla can lift nearly 5,000 pounds over his head. As Kong is roughly five times taller than any Gorilla, he could lift about 25,000 pounds, or 11 tons. So him throwing around T. rex isn't too unlikely. Being that T.rex only weighed 5-8 tons, a Gorilla of Kong size could definetely toss them around.

What is unlikely is that a giant gorilla could withstand the multiple bites of three tyrannosaurs. If my calculations are correct, then the Tyrannosaurus could exert a bite force of some 3,000 pounds per square inch. One must also remember that in Jackson's King Kong, these aren't run of the mill tyrannosaurs, these are "Vastosaurus rex" which are apparently evolved tyrannosaurs. With 65,000,000 years of evolution on their side, i'd estimate that the "V. rex" could exert anywhere from 3,500-4,000 pounds/square inch. In his fight, Kong receives several hard bites to the arms, legs and shoulders. He probably should've been crippled by each bone-shattering bite, and then picked apart by the theropods.

I think that Kong, in all likelihoods, should've been eaten. But this is Hollywood, and title characters almost never die halfway through the film. So what do you people think? Could a giant gorilla fight off three tyrannosaurs?

[Garbarsardar]

Being a stickler for realism myself, I have to concede that the average King Kong cannot defeat 3 Vastosaurous or ~1.8 Godzilla.

Now if you consider that a Magnagorilla is usually equated in most scientific texts with ~867 Gorillas, I would say that King Kong fell some gorillas short of the mark.

Tomorrow I will explain everything about Pterosharks.

[Simetrical]

three adult Tyrannosaur Rex (Rexs? Rexes? Rexii?)

Normally Latin names are not pluralized: "three Tyrannosaurus rex". If you wished to use the actual Latin plural, it would be "three Tyrannosauri reges".

First all, the matter of strength. An adult Gorilla can lift nearly 5,000 pounds over his head. As Kong is roughly five times taller than any Gorilla, he could lift about 25,000 pounds, or 11 tons.

Undoubtedly considerably more. Kong himself would weigh more than 11 tons, because scaling something up by a factor of five increases its volume (and therefore its mass) by the cube of that, a factor of 125. Of course, a gorilla that were simply scaled up without structural changes would just collapse and not be able to lift anything, so you really can't extrapolate.

What is unlikely is that a giant gorilla could withstand the multiple bites of three tyrannosaurs. If my calculations are correct, then the Tyrannosaurus could exert a bite force of some 3,000 pounds per square inch . . . In his fight, Kong receives several hard bites to the arms, legs and shoulders. He probably should've been crippled by each bone-shattering bite, and then picked apart by the theropods.

Pressure of the initial contact isn't everything. It only measures how easily the teeth can rip into the flesh. The sustained force of the bite as a whole is more important for determining what it will do once it penetrates. Undoubtedly a Tyrannosaurus could take large chunks out of Kong's flesh, but it's hard for me to say whether it could so easily break his bones. Kong would be quite a bit bigger and heavier than any of the T. rex, and would at least stand a good chance of winning if he played his cards right, I should imagine. He would have better reach and probably better speed, and could easily kill a T. rex with a good swing.

[Rush Limbaugh]

Lets look at something comparable

Leopard vs Gorilla (Animal face-off)

The leopard Im sure is far quicker and more agile than any T-Rex. The real question should be would they even get a bite in?

I have to wonder if a 25-foot tall Gorilla could actually fight off three adult Tyrannosaur Rex (Rexs? Rexes? Rexii?)

It might seem that any creature answering the description of Kong would be despicable and terrifying. Such is not the case. Kong is an exaggeration ad absurdum, too vast to be plausible. This makes his actions wholly enjoyable. King Kong, "conceived" by Merian Coldwell Cooper, was not made entirely by enlarging miniatures. Kong is actually 50 ft. tall, 36 ft. around the chest. His face is 6½ ft. wide with 10-in. teeth and ears 1 ft. long. He has a rubber nose, glass eyes as big as tennis balls. His furry outside is made of 30 bearskins. During his tantrums, there were six men in his interior running his 85 motors. Naturally no such monster would be limber enough to wrestle with a tyrannosaurus. Most of Kong's fights were photographed in miniature, some of them in "stop-motion"—using models of which the positions are minutely changed after each exposure, like the drawings in an animated cartoon.

[Kanaric]

Lets look at something comparable

Leopard vs Gorilla (Animal face-off)

The leopard Im sure is far quicker and more agile than any T-Rex. The real question should be would they even get a bite in?

DAMNIT I was expecting some awesome crowd pleasing no hold barred animal fight and it was in CG.

[Bokks]

DAMNIT I was expecting some awesome crowd pleasing no hold barred animal fight and it was in CG.

Yeah... and the tiger vs. lion one after it wasn't very accurate.
Hey, do they still do those "animal death-match" things with metal replicas and then cg models of how the models acted?
I'm torn at what I hope for; while they were not very realstic, and actually the "science" behind it is really flawed (the whole comparing a comparison thing) it did have it's entertainment values...

[Eric]

Well, I got my info from The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island, an encylopedic book related to Peter Jackson's 2005 movie, which referenced 'Megaprimatus kong' as being 18-25 feet in height.

[Rush Limbaugh]

I got mine here



The real Kong was 50 ft tall. Wow that link worked. Ill have to use that more often

[Juvenal]

As Sim mentioned, a gorilla's body structure just doesn't work when you scale it up to the proportions of Kong.

A gorilla that big couldn't jump, let alone swing - he would have to make do with stomping on you with his crutches.

I thought that Peter Jackson's King Kong was an incredible achievement and I enjoyed every minute of it (except for some of the giant leech things in the valley bottom where I had to close my eyes ).

Although I admired the way Kong was animated and how he (Andy Serkis) moved - I couldn't help noticing that he moved like a roughly gorilla-sized animal. He should have been much slower (due to inertia and power-to-weight ratio), but I suppose that would have spoiled the feel of the movie. In the end you just have to suspend your disbelief and go with the flow.

By the way, is there a consensus yet about whether T.Rex was a hunter or a scavanger?

[Eric]

I think all people reasonably competent in paleobiology will recognize that T. rex was like an modern predator, i.e: An opportunist. He'll scavenge when he can, or kill when he can. Either way, he gets a meal and Rex is happy.

[David Deas]

So I watched King Kong today, the recent one by Peter Jackson. Good movie, but one thing struck me about it. Being the stickler for realism that I am, I have to wonder if a 25-foot tall Gorilla could actually fight off three adult Tyrannosaur Rex (Rexs? Rexes? Rexii?)

First all, the matter of strength. An adult Gorilla can lift nearly 5,000 pounds over his head. As Kong is roughly five times taller than any Gorilla, he could lift about 25,000 pounds, or 11 tons. So him throwing around T. rex isn't too unlikely. Being that T.rex only weighed 5-8 tons, a Gorilla of Kong size could definetely toss them around.

What is unlikely is that a giant gorilla could withstand the multiple bites of three tyrannosaurs. If my calculations are correct, then the Tyrannosaurus could exert a bite force of some 3,000 pounds per square inch. One must also remember that in Jackson's King Kong, these aren't run of the mill tyrannosaurs, these are "Vastosaurus rex" which are apparently evolved tyrannosaurs. With 65,000,000 years of evolution on their side, i'd estimate that the "V. rex" could exert anywhere from 3,500-4,000 pounds/square inch. In his fight, Kong receives several hard bites to the arms, legs and shoulders. He probably should've been crippled by each bone-shattering bite, and then picked apart by the theropods.

I think that Kong, in all likelihoods, should've been eaten. But this is Hollywood, and title characters almost never die halfway through the film. So what do you people think? Could a giant gorilla fight off three tyrannosaurs?

There is no 25 foot tall ape, so the answer is whatever you want it to be. Its not really possible to answer a pure fantasy question incorrectly.

[Ummagumma]

Look at the muscle density of lizards versus mammals. I think the giant spiders would be the hardest creature there for that reason.

[Spurius]

It's like Sim said, any creature you enlarge a handful of times, gets into trouble even moving about.

Funny thing is, without mitochondria, which were most likely encapsulated bacteria at one point (Margolis), we'd experience something similar, but as we are right now - we'd not have enough energy to move about - they've become the cells batteries, of sorts.

[David Deas]

Nobody seems to have a problem with the dinosaurs moving as quickly as they were.

[christof139]

Of couse it could. I saw it on WWF. Chris

[Rush Limbaugh]

Of couse it could. I saw it on WWF. Chris

The World Wildlife Foundation?

[christof139]

Ha ha ha!! No, not World Wildlife Foundation, but rather the World Wrestling Federation.

Chris

[Bokks]

The WWrestlingF got sued by the WWildlifeF. The WWrestlingF is now the WWE.

Anyway, personally if it was a life or death situation I could beat three T Rex. 'Course then again my lack of size probably would help in fighting multiple gigantic monsters, and I may be defining "beat" as simply not getting eaten.
Either way, I love how in the original King Kong, Kong always seemed to change size.

Speaking of which, is the assumption that as Kong gets bigger, his brain increases too? In that case he'd probably be able to think the dinos to death.

[christof139]

thanx for telling me that, i actually did not know that. Chris

[King Edward III]

If the Gorilla got a gun..