Who can forget the classic scene in Jurassic Park where the T.rex is chasing people in a jeep. Steven Spielberg really brought the dead-past back to life, and people loved the dino-terror. Everything seemed so real, as if this is how dinosaurs were like long ago. Even the most recent 4th Jurassic Park movie was the #1 box office hit of the summer that year.
The terror of being chased by a running T.rex -- whether you were into that or feared it -- might not be as real as you once thought, as that probably couldn't happen as it wasn't something the T.rex could withstand doing. So says new research that investigated the running abilities of Tyrannosaurus rex and the effect that their body weight has on stressing their legs. It turns out that their legs would have buckled under their own weight load as they absorbed the momentum and weight of their running bodies.
Previous biomechanical models had predicted the T.rex could run up to 45mph, but that just can't be anymore. Even though it was adopted in Jurassic Park, the speed issue has been debated for a while, as led author Professor William Sellers says:
The running ability of T. rex and other similarly giant dinosaurs has been intensely debated amongst palaeontologist for decades. However, different studies using differing methodologies have produced a very wide range of top speed estimates and we say there is a need to develop techniques that can improve these predictions.
One thing previous studies didn't properly consider was skeletal loading. However, the new simulations in this research do properly calculate all relevant forces in the limb-bones to estimate the bone-load on impact from running or walking.
The T.rex is likely limited to walking speeds, unless trying to catch one speedy meal is enough for them to end up with leg and bone stresses, leading to possible leg injuries like breaking a leg and further diminish their survival capabilities? I think the way they were built and the pain they would have would prevent them from even wanting to try to catch something faster as soon as they put too much weight and momentum into one leg.
Younger T.rexs could have been more agile, but as they grew up, their bodies became heavier and longer but the limbs were proportionally smaller and tighter, impeding the former "grace" of movement they once had. Their bodies just weren't built to do the running.
This doesn't mean the T.rex was just out for a walk in the park that you could easily outrun in the Jurassic Park movie. As any with predator, it might give chase but it will be a walking-chase for it, while you run! You might not need a jeep, but having one would mean the T.rex had no chance of keeping up with you.
This is an atypical post from me, but I found it interesting to show how we can believe things about the past even though they aren't true. Despite the movie being a false reality, most people thought dinosaurs were just how the movie presented them.
We can't verify much at all about the past. It's gone, eroded with the winds of time. It's a good lesson about how we can be influenced into accepting a narrative of the past. Politicians do it now, but the art of manipulation has long been used in priestly roles to command order from populations.
One final thing to ask yourself is: do the dinosaurs really look exactly like what we've been shown, or could they look different? Paleontologists only dig up the shape of the bones as fossils. From that they rebuild what they think the dinosaurs would look like.
References:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/tyrannosaur-trex-running-speed/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/07/19/T.rex-couldnt-run-new-research-says/491122001/
http://www.businessinsider.com/T.rex-could-not-run-like-in-movie-jurassic-park-2017-7
http://www.sciencealert.com/running-would-have-broken-an-adult-tyrannosaurus-rex-s-legs
https://phys.org/news/2017-07-tyrannosaurus-rex-couldnt.html
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