{"id":317665,"date":"2026-02-26T04:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T04:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/317665\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T04:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T04:52:08","slug":"t-rex-could-run-faster-than-usain-bolt-on-its-toes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/317665\/","title":{"rendered":"T. Rex Could Run Faster Than Usain Bolt, on Its Toes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        Tyrannosaurus rex may loom large in our collective imagination, but new research suggests the creature moved more like a supersize barnyard bird than a stomping movie monster. A study in <a href=\"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/rsos\/article\/13\/2\/252139\/480521\/Evidence-of-bird-like-foot-function-in\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Royal Society Open Science<\/a> argues that the predator walked and ran on its toes, using quick, choppy steps reminiscent of modern birds rather than long, pounding strides. &#8220;Even the iconic T. rex was quite birdlike,&#8221; University of Edinburgh paleontologist Steve Brusatte, who wasn&#8217;t involved in the study, tells the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/24\/science\/tyrannosaurus-rex-tiptoes-dinosaurs.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times<\/a>, likening it to &#8220;an 8-ton chicken clucking about in the barnyard.&#8221;&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        Led by Adrian Boeye, an undergrad biomechanics student at the College of the Atlantic in Maine, the team analyzed tyrannosaur footprints\u2014one nearly 3 feet long\u2014alongside leg bones from specimens including a juvenile T. rex and the famed adult &#8220;Sue.&#8221; After calibrating their models with the movements of living birds, the researchers concluded that T. rex struck the ground toe-first\u2014much like birds and people\u2014and hit top speed by increasing stride frequency, not stride length.&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        Juveniles may have been able to cover up to 37 feet per second, while massive adults likely maxed out closer to a Komodo dragon&#8217;s pace, or around 20 feet per second. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/uk\/science\/article\/t-rex-fast-100m-usain-bolt-fwpj6nbn3?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqc9YdwEeCRGmC1c3yqFuADfSVDZ-yi3oHWG-tVXZjKfNtKI6Ytx4_Mb9dTvyaQ%3D&amp;gaa_ts=699eea42&amp;gaa_sig=BQv8egQl-WBp5adMro9DslzZ8rqAoMFPPwRasF_kwnVAXwBft3QGXaYx9fnaG-005kgOvrrd1_Sd8Nh1qEqz_A%3D%3D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Times<\/a> of London notes that a T. rex on the smaller side may even have been able to beat Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt in a 100-meter race. The work adds to other evidence tying tyrannosaurs closely to birds, suggesting tiptoe-running joins traits like feathers and wishbones as part of an evolutionary story that began long before flight, per the New York Times.&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Tyrannosaurus rex may loom large in our collective imagination, but new research suggests the creature moved more&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[15434,15638,4725,30433,42140,107816,61,60,82,2713,148094,148095,21552,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-317665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-biomechanics","9":"tag-birds","10":"tag-dinosaurs","11":"tag-discoveries","12":"tag-feet","13":"tag-footprints","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-study","18":"tag-t-rex","19":"tag-toes","20":"tag-tyrannosaurus-rex","21":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}