T-Rex Grew Like Topsy
The iconic giant dinosaur known as Tyrannosaurus Rex grew bigger than anyone thought – and a lot faster, too.
New research on these ancient animals shows that one of the fossils examined by researchers must have weighed at least nine tons, compared with the previous estimate of around six tons.
“We estimate they grew as fast as 3,950 pounds per year during the teenage period of growth, which is more than twice the previous estimate,” study researcher John Hutchinson of The Royal Veterinary College, London, said.
T-Rex was probably not as fast-moving as previously thought. The torso grew longer and heavier while its limbs grew relatively shorter and lighter, which shifted their center of gravity forward.
“T. rex has pretty large, in fact, enormous leg muscles,” explained said study researcher Peter Makovicky of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, “probably the largest leg muscles of any creature that ever lived, but a lot of that leg muscle had to stabilize the animal and didn’t translate into speed.”
More information is at the Christian Science Monitor.