Scientists Reveal Tyrannosaurus rex Would Outrun Football Player
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Had the Tyrannosaurus rex been alive today, they would have been able to outrun some of the fastest humans, according to British scientists.
Using data from dinosaur fossils, the University of Manchester performed studies with computers to model the skeletons and muscular make-up of 5 meat eating dinosaurs and 3 living species, including humans, using evolutionary robotics.
After nearly 100,000 simulations, the study revealed that the T rex’s top running speed was up to 18 MPH, placing it slightly faster than a football player, but marginally slower than the current record of 100 meter sprinters who can exceed 20 MPH. Photo lluisr
Each creature was run through its paces to find the fastest running style and top speed. The evolutionary robotics calculated the most likely gait of each creature. After processing tests for one week for each creature, the results produced what is believed to be the most accurate figures on dinosaurs’ athletic abilities.
“Previously, people have assumed dinosaurs moved like animals alive today, but if you look at them, they aren’t like anything still around today, so there’s no reason to assume they’d move like them,” said Dr. Bill Sellers, an expert in dinosaur biomechanics at Manchester.
“We use information about their bones and muscles and then ask the computer to work out the fastest way that creature could get from one place to another. If sometimes it wants to hop or skip, then it will,” he added. The researchers found that the T rex had a tendency of skipping as it sped up from a walking speed to a full run.
The technique was first tested by modeling a 155 pound (70 kilos) human, an emu and an ostrich. The computer predicted the human to have a top speed of 17.7mph, the emu nearly 30 MPH and the ostrich 35 MPH. The 5 dinosaurs included the Compsognathus which is about the about the size of a chicken at 6.5 pounds (3 kilos), a 44 pound (20 kilos) Velociraptor, a 960 pound (430 kilos) Crested Dilophosaurus, a 1½ ton Allosaurus and a 6 ton T rex.
The fastest dinosaur was the Compsognathus which could run at 40 MPH. The only modern bird to equal this speed is the ostrich. The T rex was the second slowest of all. The Allosaurus could reach to 21 MPH, the Dilophosaurus 23.5 MPH, and the Velociraptor 24.2 MPH. Photo Orin Optiglot
Often questioning how fast Tyrannosaurus rex could run, some scientists have argued that the T rex was so unwieldy, that it was only capable of walking. The skeptics suspect the dinosaur may not have been the fearsome hunter as it’s typically portrayed, but a scavenger feeding off faster animals’ scraps.
“Our findings suggest T rex was far too quick to be a scavenger.” said Dr Sellers. “One of the things that people argue about is why did they need to move as fast as they did – what are they chasing after?”
“We’re now doing some work on Hadrosaurus which is assumed to be one of the things that T. rex would prey upon because there have been fossils found with bite marks on their backs.”
“What we find is that we’re getting really quite high speeds for these animals as well, which makes perfect sense. If you’re a fast predator, you’re probably chasing fast prey that you want to catch.”
“[The computer model] is much less biased by what we think about how these animals ought to have moved. We have this expectation that they ought to move like humans or ostriches, and of course they didn’t.” said Dr. Sellers.
“They don’t look very much like humans or ostriches, so they would have moved like dinosaurs; this seems to be a much better way of achieving that.”
Dr. Sellers’ future plans are to produce 3D simulations of dinosaurs but computers aren’t quite at the point where they’re capable for handling the testing they want to do with the model.
Watch the video of the demonstration.
Sources — BBC News and The Guardian.
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Thousands of Dinosaur Footprints Preserved by Laser Technology
I can see a new computer game emerging here….Deborah…..fascinating info !!!!
When I look at the picture of that T-Rex, all I can think of is it’s a great opportunity for a Crest/Colgate commercial. Dude, brush your teeth. Ya’ got major plaque there.
Interesting idea Kim
Haha, can you imagine the size of the toothbrush he’d need to do those fangs Nitropuppy? I think he’d need a longer reach with those arms as well.
For some reason, I thought these “adorable” creatures were a lot faster than that. I guess I watched too many movies!
Well movies such as Jurassic Park and the recent King Kong may kind of warp our perceptions, but they can still run pretty fast! At least if you can run like an Olympian, you may still stand a chance to outrun one Stefan
i like dinosaur very much i like to see pics and i wanna do reserch on dinosaur…..
Ok we now know how fast they can run so id basically get eaten alive if they were around now, Great!
Cool Meditation
Haha, that’s about the size of things Shazad. I know I’m certainly not an Olypic runner to outrace one
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