--- title: "Which came first, Tyrannosaurus rex or the United States?" description: "Tyrannosaurus rex vs the United States: Tyrannosaurus rex came first, by 68.002 million years — 68 million years ago against 1776. What happened in each case." url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/t-rex-vs-united-states/ site: "At One Place" --- # Which came first, Tyrannosaurus rex or the United States? **Which came first, Tyrannosaurus rex or the United States?: Tyrannosaurus rex** 68 million years ago — 68.002 million years before the United States Tyrannosaurus rex came first, by 68.002 million years. T. rex lived in the last two million years of the age of dinosaurs. ## Side by side | | Tyrannosaurus rex | the United States | | --- | --- | --- | | Year | 68 million years ago | 1776 | | Date | — | 1776-07-04 | | Category | nature | country | | What happened | T. rex lived in the last two million years of the age of dinosaurs. | The Declaration of Independence was adopted. | ## Tyrannosaurus rex Tyrannosaurus rex lived from about 68 to 66 million years ago, right at the end of the Cretaceous. Stegosaurus died out around 150 million years ago. That means T. rex is closer in time to us — 66 million years — than it is to Stegosaurus, by more than 20 million years. The two are routinely drawn in the same picture and never met. ## the United States The date used here is the Declaration, 4 July 1776, which is the one people mean. Two others have equal claim: Britain recognised independence in 1783, and the Constitution took effect in 1789, so the current government is younger than the country by thirteen years. The United States is older as a state than Germany (1871), Italy (1861), Canada (1867) and modern Japan (1868). > Deep-time date, approximate to within a million years or so. ## Common questions ### Which came first, Tyrannosaurus rex or the United States? Tyrannosaurus rex, by 68.002 million years — 68 million years ago against 1776. ### When did Tyrannosaurus rex start? 68 million years ago. T. rex lived in the last two million years of the age of dinosaurs. ### When did the United States start? 1776. The Declaration of Independence was adopted. ## Related pages - [sharks or Tyrannosaurus rex?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/sharks-vs-t-rex/) - [sharks or the United States?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/sharks-vs-united-states/) - [the Great Pyramid of Giza or Tyrannosaurus rex?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/great-pyramid-vs-t-rex/) - [the Great Pyramid of Giza or the United States?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/great-pyramid-vs-united-states/) - [Germany or the United States?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/germany-vs-united-states/) - [Pakistan or the United States?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/pakistan-vs-united-states/) - [India or the United States?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/india-vs-united-states/) - [pizza or Tyrannosaurus rex?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/pizza-vs-t-rex/) - [pizza or the United States?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/pizza-vs-united-states/) - [Nintendo or Tyrannosaurus rex?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/nintendo-vs-t-rex/) - [Nintendo or the United States?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/nintendo-vs-united-states/) - [the internet (ARPANET) or Tyrannosaurus rex?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/arpanet-vs-t-rex/) ## Sources - Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/) - Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]