Swinging locomotion: t. Rex used to run slower than humans

Wednesday 21 April 2021

Swinging place
T. Rex went slower than humans

Researchers in the Netherlands are developing a new approach to model the movement of dinosaurs. Using 3D reconstruction, they include not only the limbs, but also the tail of a Tyrannosaurus rex in their calculations. They use a museum piece as a template.

How fast was Rex really a torture? There are already answers to this question, but they may not correspond to reality. To find out more, Dutch researchers t. Not only did Rex take shape and limbs, but also his tail, which played an important role in the movement. As a result, they came to the conclusion that the animals were running more leisurely than normal walking speeds.

After physical analysis, they calculate the giants’ normal walking speed at about 1.28 meters per second – the equivalent of 4.6 kilometers per hour. For comparison: the average walking speed of people is 1.34 to 1.42 meters per second accordingly – that is, 4.8 to 5.1 km / h.

Normal walking speed can usually be determined in animals based on the natural frequency of the involved body parts, writes the team around Pasha van Bijlert from the University of Amsterdam in the journal “Royal Society Open Science”. T. In the case of the Rex, which was up to 13 meters long and weighed nine tons and ran on two legs, it was mainly the tail in addition to the legs. It grew and fell once at every step and thus supported this movement. “You can compare it to a suspension bridge,” Van Bijlert said in a press release. “A suspension bridge with a lot of muscle.”

With the help of a 3D reconstruction and a biomechanical model of vertebrates and joints, Dutch researchers estimated the natural frequency of tail oscillation. For this he used the tricks, Tyrannosaurus Rex, which is on display at the Dutch National Museum of Natural History, Naturalis. Researchers considered a hip height of 3.1 meters and a length of 1.94 meters.

The prescribed walking speed of 1.28 meters per second is lower than previous estimates written by the authors. “But he mostly looked at the legs and ignored the tail – which is what makes Dinoes so unique,” Van Bijlert says. “They usually found very fast walking speeds. The calculation we did is low, but it is similar to other animals.” Because it is not the fastest, but t. Rex’s favorite move. Previous studies had shown that hunters could not even reach 30 km / h while running dinosaurs. For comparison: Former top runner Usain Bolt ran 100 meters at an average speed of about 38 km / h.