What if a T-rex chased you?
The short answer
Scientists think a real T-rex probably couldn't run, and its comfy walk was about as fast as yours.
But when it's hungry... it can walk faster.
The story, line by line
- Picture this... a T-rex is chasing you!
- In the movies, it's as fast as a car!
- But scientists built a T-rex inside a computer... and told it to run.
- Its leg bones couldn't take the force!
- Another study says it would need ridiculous leg muscles to run fast.
- So a real T-rex probably couldn't run at all... it could only walk!
- Its comfy walking speed? About four point six kilometers an hour...
- That's about as fast as you walk!
- So the two of you are just... out for a stroll.
- But when it's hungry... it can walk faster.
- So... run!
Where this comes from
We checked every line of the video against these published sources.
- [S1] Sellers WI, Pond SB, Brassey CA, Manning PL, Bates KT (2017). Investigating the running abilities of Tyrannosaurus rex using stress-constrained multibody dynamic analysis. PeerJ 5:e3420. DOI 10.7717/peerj.3420. Full text: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5518979/ (also https://peerj.com/articles/3420/)
- [S2] Hutchinson JR, Garcia M (2002). Tyrannosaurus was not a fast runner. Nature 415:1018-1021. DOI 10.1038/4151018a. Abstract: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11875567/
- [S3] van Bijlert PA, van Soest AJK, Schulp AS (2021). Natural Frequency Method: estimating the preferred walking speed of Tyrannosaurus rex based on tail natural frequency. Royal Society Open Science 8:201441. DOI 10.1098/rsos.201441. Full text: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8059583/ (also https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.201441)
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