Tyrannosaurus rex ran faster than footballers

say Manchester University. With enough brains to fill a tablespoon, it was also smarter.

Dr Bill Sellers has computer modelled T. rex running based on the fossil skeletons but make assumptions about muscle strength and density:

“The muscles that don’t fossilise we get from information from what we know about modern animals,” Dr Sellers said.

“It’s all anatomical information that goes into the model and then the computer itself chooses the best way of activating the muscles in the model to maximise the speed of the animal.”

Using their dinosaur modelling techniques, the team also modelled humans and ostriches and compared the results with measured values. The group is confident in its approach.

In the future, Dr Sellers and his team hope to produce 3D simulations of dinosaurs which will allow them to explore the full range of motions the reptiles were capable of.

“At the moment, computers aren’t quite big enough for all the things we want to do with the model. It takes a long time to get the animal to learn to walk. The next step is to move into 3D.”

They are currently working with animators on a dinosaur model which “because it uses the musculoskeletal model as the starting point, anything we get the animal to do, it could actually do”.

What a boss job that man has.