Tyrannosaurus rex- fearsome predators

With a body weighing eight tonnes and six inch teeth, Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the most fearsome predators that ever walked the Earth.

But new research suggests that it would not have been so difficult to avoid those vice-like jaws.
In fact, any creature that was quick on its feet would have been able to run rings round the King of the Dinosaurs.

Researchers looking at the biomechics of T. rex found that it was more lumbering tank than flesh-eating missile.

T. rex may have had formidable armament, but it was also a plodding slow-coach.

The study showed that it was unlikely to have been capable of running faster than 25 miles per hour - at least half the speed of many much smaller animals today.

Hardly able to swivel on a sixpence, the dinosaur would have taken more than two seconds to make a quarter turn.

Popular illustrations and Hollywood movies depict T. rex pirouetting on one leg. In fact, if it had tried to attempt such a manoeuvre, it would probably have toppled over.


Fortunately for T. rex, there were plenty of other animals around as lacking in agility as it was. One was triceratops, a big three-horned prehistoric rhinoceros of a dinosaur.


Lead author Dr John Hutchinson, who conducted the research at Stanford University, California, and is now lecturing at the Royal Veterinary College, told the BBC: "These were big clunky things - T. rex and the animals it probably preyed on.

" We have to slow down our view of that ecosystem. It wasn’t like the Serengeti today, where everything is done at top speed."

A key element of the research was using detailed computer models, coupled with T. rex fossils, to work out the weight of the dinosaur.

In the past T. rex’s weight has been put at three or four tonnes. But Dr Hutchinson’s findings suggest this was a serious under-estimate.

"We’ve shown there’s no way it could weigh 3-4 tonnes as some people have suggested," he said. "It had to have weight 6-8 tonnes."

Previous research has indicated that T. rex may have primarily been a scavenger rather than the deadly hunter which is popularly depicted.