Illustration by Ron Borresen
When you think of a Tyrannosaurus rex, you probably picture a roaring, stomping monster. But new discoveries are prompting scientists to give T. rex a makeover. Some have suggested that the dinosaur’s big teeth were covered by lips, while others have given the beast a fluffy coat of feathers. And now even its supposedly earthshaking footsteps are in question.
A recent analysis of fossilized tracks and the T. rex’s anatomy suggests that the dinosaur may have actually walked on its tippy-toes. Previous research often simplified T. rex’s feet, treating them as rigid blocks that would stomp on the ground heel-first, according to Adrian Boeye, a researcher at the College of the Atlantic in Maine. But his work revealed that T. rex likely struck the ground toe-first, much like how modern birds move.
In fact, the new findings emphasize how closely tyrannosaurs are related to living birds. “Rather than taking these bigger and bigger steps, like in Jurassic Park, [T. rex] would move quickly by rapidly swinging its legs,” Boeye says. “It would resemble being chased by an oversized bird.”