T Rex Coloring Pages

Of all the dinosaurs, the Tyrannosaurus rex is the one every child can name: the huge head, the rows of teeth, the powerful legs and those famously tiny arms. These T rex coloring pages show the king of the dinosaurs in two moods, fierce and prehistoric for the young paleontologists, and friendly and funny for the little ones who would rather see a T rex on a skateboard.

The prehistoric pages come first. A T rex roars from the top of a rocky hill, stomps through a forest of ferns, drinks from a jungle river below a waterfall, splashes through a shallow lake and walks past an erupting volcano. It walks beside a Triceratops, strides under a flock of pterosaurs, peeks out between palm trees, scratches its back against a tree trunk and leans on a boulder at the edge of a cliff while the sun sets over the sea. A trail of giant footprints leads across a field to the dinosaur that made them, a T rex yawns wide with every tooth showing, and a T rex skeleton stands in a museum behind a rope barrier, just like the famous fossils children can visit.

Family life is here too. A baby T rex breaks out of its cracked egg in a nest of leaves, a mother T rex curls around her eggs, a baby naps in its nest, another chases a dragonfly and two young tyrannosaurs play tag in a clearing. The funny pages give the T rex a life it never had: surfing a big wave, riding a skateboard, eating a watermelon, sniffing a flower, standing in the rain, looking at its own reflection in a pool, stretching out its tiny arms and sitting in a straw sun hat. There is even a smiling kid in a T rex costume, waving.

The holidays bring a T rex carving a jack o'lantern, one trick-or-treating in a witch hat, one decorating a Christmas tree, one in a Santa hat with a present, one building a snowman, one carrying an Easter basket, one holding a heart balloon and one blowing out the candles on a birthday cake.

T rex facts for kids

• Tyrannosaurus rex means "tyrant lizard king". It lived about 68 to 66 million years ago, at the very end of the age of dinosaurs, in what is now North America.
• A grown T rex was about 12 meters long, as long as a school bus, and weighed as much as an elephant or more.
• Its teeth were as long as bananas, and it had one of the strongest bites of any land animal that ever lived.
• Its arms really were tiny, only about as long as a person's arm, with two fingers on each hand. Scientists still argue about what it used them for.
• The most complete T rex skeleton ever found is nicknamed Sue, and it stands in a museum in Chicago.
• Birds are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs, which is why many scientists think young T rex may have had some fluffy feathers.

What color was a T rex?

Nobody knows for sure, because skin color is almost never kept in fossils, and that makes the T rex perfect for coloring. Scientists usually imagine it in browns, olive greens and grays, darker on the back and paler on the belly, which would have helped it hide among trees. Some artists add stripes or spots, like a tiger or a bird of prey.

The cartoon T rex pages can be any color at all: bright green, purple, orange, even rainbow. The jungle scenes look great with deep greens for the ferns and palms, the volcano with red and orange lava, and the sunset page with a sky that fades from yellow to pink.

Friendly dinosaurs and jungle scenes

The simplest pages show one friendly T rex drawn large, easy for toddlers and preschoolers. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• T Rex Holding a Heart Balloon
• T Rex Scratching Its Back on a Tree
• T Rex Splashing Through a Shallow Lake

The fern forest, the jungle river and the palm trees are full of leaves and detail for older kids. Lots of detail begins with:

A T rex party or a dinosaur lesson

T rex pages are a favorite at dinosaur birthday parties: set a stack of them on the table with crayons as the guests arrive, and give the birthday child the page with the cake. At school they fit a dinosaur or fossil unit: color the skeleton, then compare it with the living T rex and talk about how scientists rebuild an animal from its bones. The footprint page leads nicely into a measuring activity, and the egg and nest pages into a talk about how dinosaurs cared for their young.

Printing

Every page is a free A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" shrinks the drawing by about six percent so the tail stays on the paper. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack prints a whole herd at once. Many more prehistoric animals are in the dinosaur coloring pages, fire-breathing cousins in the dragon coloring pages, and today's wildlife in the animal coloring pages.