Friday, October 19, 2007

Jurassic Slowpoke: T-Rex Walking Animation

The Tyrannosaurus Rex has been the king of dinosaurs for decades, ever since it was first put on display in 1865. Jurassic Park gave it a big boost by portraying it as a fearsome predator, sort of a gigantic lion. Yet one scientist has been leading a charge that the T-Rex was not a predator at all, but a scavenger. Of course, this isn't a very popular view, but he's looking more and more right over time. For example, a recent computer modeling experiment seems to show that, because of its weight distribution and its leg strength, the T-Rex couldn't run more than 25 mph, and would take 2 to 3 seconds to make a sudden turn. In other words, I could outrun the T-Rex, much less a stegosaurus.



1 comment:

Maurice Mitchell said...

LOL I just think it's funny how we glamorize animals that we think are cool and relegate others to the back burner. The idea that a T-Rex is a slow scavenger doesn't match our perception of cool "lion-like" creatures, but it is possible. Too bad their walking models are based on the assumptions that birds evolved from dinosaurs. We'll never really know.