Was T. rex closer in time to us than to Stegosaurus?

Yes. Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex were separated by roughly 80 million years, while T. rex lived about 66 to 70 million years before the present day. The gap between T. rex and Stegosaurus was therefore larger than the gap between T. rex and us. The [usgs.gov](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/did-all-dinosaurs-live-together-and-same-time) FAQ states this directly, and so do the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian. [1] [2] [3]

According to a report from [ipm.org](https://www.ipm.org/show/amomentofscience/2022-05-03/dino-eating-dino-not-for-t-rex-and-stegosaurus), reviewed by Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum, London, Stegosaurus lived in the Late Jurassic, roughly 155 to 145 million years ago. T. rex lived in the Late Cretaceous, around 68 to 66 million years ago. Subtracting gives a gap of nearly 80 million years. [4]

Roger Benson of the American Museum of Natural History gives rounder figures in a [amnh.org](https://www.amnh.org/explore/videos/dinosaurs-and-fossils/11-questions-stegosaurus) video: Stegosaurus about 150 million years ago and T. rex about 70 million years ago. He puts the distance from humans to T. rex at 70 million years and from Stegosaurus to T. rex at 80 million. The sources differ slightly in their exact numbers, but all give the same ordering. [3]

The Mesozoic Era, often called the Age of Dinosaurs, ran from about 250 million to 66 million years ago, according to [smithsonianmag.com](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/on-dinosaur-time-65556840/). It spans three periods, the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous, and different dinosaur species lived in each. Smithsonian writer Riley Black notes that Apatosaurus and Allosaurus lived about 150 million years ago, while Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops did not evolve until about 67 million years ago. That left about 83 million years between Apatosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. The Age of Mammals, which began after the non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out, has lasted about 66 million years. [2] [1]

The idea that T. rex and Stegosaurus shared a landscape is a myth. Abi Crane of the University of Southampton writes in [theconversation.com](https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-probably-have-wrong-about-the-t-rex-220011) that by the time T. rex walked the Earth, Stegosaurus were already fossils beneath their feet. Benson adds that Stegosaurus was extinct about 80 million years before the dinosaur extinction 66 million years ago, so a fight between the two could never have happened. The USGS also notes that dinosaur communities were separated by geography as well as time, as the supercontinent Pangea broke apart and new dinosaur types evolved separately on different continents. [5] [3] [1]