Scientists conducted research on 85 \u201cnon-avian theropod species\u201d and found a correlation between the evolution of reduced forearms and high cranial robusticity in five carnivorous species<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cResults indicate that forelimb reduction is strongly correlated with cranial robusticity and gigantism,\u201d the study, which was published May 20, explains. \u201cReduced\/vestigial forelimbs evolved in at least five theropod lineages in concert with increased cranial robusticity and gigantism.\u201d<\/p>\n Tyrannosaurids \u2014 along with abelisaurids and carcharodontosaurids\u2014 \u201cshow the greatest forelimb reduction relative to the skull.\u201d<\/p>\n The results indicate that these species were forced to shift from \u201csubduing prey\u201d<\/a> using their grasp, to relying on their \u201cpowerful bites and robust skulls.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the studied species, the Tyrannosaurus rex had the largest head.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Xfinity\/Mega<\/p>\n Lead author Charles Roger Scherer told CNN<\/a>, \u201cEverything was approached headfirst, so the head just became what came into contact with the prey. That was the easiest way to bring them down, as opposed to jumping around or fighting with claws.\u201d<\/p>\n While the research likely discovered the cause of the short limbs, Scherer explained that the function of the arms remains unclear.<\/p>\n \u201cThey obviously served some kind of function, otherwise they wouldn\u2019t have them,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully we can find that out with a bit more work.\u201d<\/p>\n This story Why Do T-Rex Dinosaurs Have Mini Arms? Scientists May Have Discovered the Reason<\/a> first appeared on Globe<\/a>. Add Globe as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a known fact that Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs have small arms \u2014 but why? Scientists now believe they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[292646,217007,79,15850,292645,85915],"class_list":["post-670694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-forelimbs","tag-research-study","tag-science","tag-scientists","tag-the-royal-society","tag-tyrannosaurus-rex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2f1e4b1cee5192afa51503aeb0c136bb.jpeg\"\/)
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