Titans Clash: From the Late Cretaceous to Your Collection
- Aug 21, 2026
- Learn
- 5 min
In the final years of the Age of the Dinosaurs, two giant apex predators ruled their respective ecosystems. 66 million years later, these titans of land and sky have been brought together on one of our latest fine silver coins. Enhanced with selective colour, the reverse design by Canadian paleoartist Julius Csotonyi shares a ground-level view of a towering Tyrannosaurus rex striding through a swampy woodland, as a juvenile Quetzalcoatlus northropi swoops low overhead.
To ensure the accuracy of this depiction, Dr. François Therrien, paleontologist and Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, scientifically verified the imagery. His knowledge of these immense animals extends past the design though. Keep reading to discover more about T. rex and Q. northropi from this expert.
In the final years of the Age of the Dinosaurs, two giant apex predators ruled their respective ecosystems. 66 million years later, these titans of land and sky have been brought together on one of our latest fine silver coins. Enhanced with selective colour, the reverse design by Canadian paleoartist Julius Csotonyi shares a ground-level view of a towering Tyrannosaurus rex striding through a swampy woodland, as a juvenile Quetzalcoatlus northropi swoops low overhead.
To ensure the accuracy of this depiction, Dr. François Therrien, paleontologist and Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, scientifically verified the imagery. His knowledge of these immense animals extends past the design though. Keep reading to discover more about T. rex and Q. northropi from this expert.
Tyrannosaurus rex
We all know this dinosaur. From blockbuster movies to famous fossil discoveries, T. rex (aka the “tyrant lizard king”) might be the most well-known prehistoric predator ever.
“Tyrannosaurus rex reached up to 13 m in length — longer than a school bus — and weighed between 5.5 and 10 tonnes. It walked on two powerful hindlimbs and although it couldn’t run, it could reach a speedy pace of up to 28 km/h. At the end of their short necks hung a large, robust skull that reached up to 1.4 m in length,” describes Dr. Therrien.
The largest T. rex specimen ever found was unearthed in Eastend, Saskatchewan in 1991. This discovery also marked the most complete skeleton (65 per cent) of a large T. rex to be found in Canada. It was only slightly less complete than the famous Sue specimen (73 per cent of the skeleton) at the Field Museum of Chicago, Illinois. Tyrannosaurus rex also became Saskatchewan’s Provincial Fossil in 2017.
Quetzalcoatlus northropi
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s a pterosaur with same sized wingspan as the CT-114 Tutors that Canada’s Snowbirds fly. Quetzalcoatlus is considered to have been the largest flying animal that ever lived.
“When it was on the ground, its head was up to about the same height as a giraffe,” reveals Dr. Therrien. “Oftentimes the Quetzalcoatlus, and pterosaurs in general, are called flying dinosaurs. But they’re actually not dinosaurs. They're distant cousins of tyrannosaurs.”
Though skeletal remains of Q. northropi haven’t been discovered in Canada, their range throughout ancient North America and their estimated 640km daily flight range, have researchers thinking that it’s quite possible they made it to Alberta or Saskatchewan.
“We haven’t found Quetzalcoatlus (in Canada) yet, but that’s not unusual because pterosaur bones are extremely fragile. So, they tend to break down before we find them,” explains Dr. Therrien.
Battle of These Titans
There is no direct fossil evidence to indicate these giant predators ever fought one another. Their coexistence in North America during the Late Cretaceous period (around 68-66 million years ago) they undoubtedly crossed paths.
Science would suggest that if they were to battle, it might be a Quetzalcoatlus swooping in to scavenge scraps from a meal that a T. rex had been eating. Though the pterosaur would need to be extremely cautious as a full-grown T. rex would easily win any direct conflict between the two.
From Fossils to Fine Silver
Bring home a piece of the prehistoric past with this pure silver coin featuring a scientifically accurate design of these two titans. With the included black light flashlight, you can make your own discovery and reveal their fossilized forms. Order yours today!
