To scale · museum-cited sizes
Dinosaur size comparison
How big was T. rex next to you? “SUE”, the Field Museum's T. rex, is more than 12.2 m (40 ft) long and 4.0 m (13 ft) tall at the hip: taller at the hip than two 1.7 m people stacked head to toe. Pick up to four prehistoric animals and see them drawn to the same scale beside a 1.7 m person.
Tyrannosaurus rex “SUE” drawn 12.2 m (40 ft) long
Stegosaurus stenops “Sophie” drawn 5.6 m (18 ft) long
Triceratops drawn 9 m (30 ft) long
Velociraptor mongoliensis drawn 1.8 m (6 ft) long
| Animal | Length | Height | When | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyrannosaurus rex “SUE”FMNH PR 2081, Field Museum, Chicago | more than 40 ft (12.2 m) long | 13 ft (4.0 m) at the hip | Late Cretaceous | Field Museum, SUE the T. rex; Natural History Museum, TyrannosaurusSUE is the largest T. rex specimen found; the Natural History Museum gives adult T. rex as about 12 m long and 3.5–4.0 m tall at the hips. |
| Stegosaurus stenops “Sophie”NHMUK PV R36730, Natural History Museum, London | 5.6 m (18 ft) long | 2.9 m (9.5 ft) tall | Late Jurassic | Natural History Museum, Sophie the Stegosaurus; Natural History Museum, StegosaurusSophie is the most complete Stegosaurus skeleton known. The museum's Dino Directory gives the species as up to about 9 m long. |
| Triceratops | 9.0 m (30 ft) long | not given | Late Cretaceous | Natural History Museum, TriceratopsThe museum's Dino Directory also estimates about 10 tonnes. Height is not given; the drawing's height is approximate. |
| Velociraptor mongoliensis | 1.8 m (6 ft) long | not given | Late Cretaceous | Natural History Museum, VelociraptorAbout 7 kg, says the museum: the Jurassic Park films showed it at twice its real size. Height is not given; the drawing's height is approximate. |
How the size comparison works
Every animal is drawn at the same number of pixels per metre, with a 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in) person at the start of each row, and a scale bar underneath. Where a source gives a range, the drawing uses the top of it and the table gives the whole range: megalodon is drawn at 24.3 m, the largest published estimate, although its biggest museum teeth suggest 14.2 to 15.3 m.
- Lengths and heights come from the museum that holds the specimen, the Natural History Museum's Dino Directory or a peer-reviewed paper, named in the table with a link.
- Heights are drawn to the cited figure where there is one: SUE's hip, Sophie's height, the Berlin Giraffatitan's head, the mammoth's shoulder. Otherwise the silhouette's height is only approximate.
- The silhouettes are simple drawings for scale, not scientific reconstructions. Animals without a solid museum or peer-reviewed size are left out.
Sources
Field Museum (SUE, FMNH PR 2081); Natural History Museum, London (Sophie, NHMUK PV R36730; Dippy; the Dino Directory; ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs and mammoths); Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (Giraffatitan mount); Engelman 2023, Diversity 15(3):318 (Dunkleosteus); Witton & Habib 2010, PLoS ONE 5:e13982 (Quetzalcoatlus wingspan); Shimada 2019, Perez et al. 2021 and Shimada et al. 2025 (megalodon); NOAA Fisheries (white shark, blue whale). Each animal's links are in the table above.
Questions
How big was T. rex compared with a person?
SUE, the largest T. rex specimen, is more than 12.2 m long and 4.0 m tall at the hip, says the Field Museum: about seven people lying head to toe, and more than twice a 1.7 m person's height at the hip.
Was megalodon bigger than a blue whale?
No. Even the largest estimate for megalodon, about 24.3 m (Shimada et al. 2025), is shorter than a blue whale, which NOAA Fisheries says grows up to 110 ft (33.5 m).
How big was Velociraptor really?
About 1.8 m long and 7 kg, says the Natural History Museum, roughly half the size the Jurassic Park films showed.