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Scientists Study Dinosaurs' Speed

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Place your cursor over the slideshow for captions.
yrannosaurus rex might have been the toughest dino in town, but it certainly wasn't the fastest. Scientists recently used a computer model to clock the average speed of the king of the dinosaurs at a mere 15 miles per hour. Today's fastest animal-the cheetah, which can reach speeds of up to 65 miles per hour-would leave T. rex in the dust. In fact, the world's fastest human could have probably outrun the big beast! In 1996, Michael Johnson ran about 22 miles per hour in an Olympic sprinting event.

The scientists used data from dinosaur fossils to calculate their results. In their computer model, they also included details about the animals' weight, height, bones, and muscles to figure out how the creatures moved. In the past, scientists have estimated dinosaur speed by comparing their bodies to those of modern animals. Dr. Bill Sellers, one of the scientists who conducted the study, says using raw data is more accurate than making inferences "The computer model is less biased by what we think about how these animals ought to have moved. We have this expectation that they ought to move like humans or ostriches, and of course they didn't," he said. Indeed, an ostrich can run 40 miles per hour! Beep! Beep!

Big Beast No Ballerina
Scientists also used the data to determine the dinosaur's turning speed, a scientific first. It turns out the creature was a bit of a klutz. It took the lumbering lizard about 2 seconds to make a 45-degree turn. A human can do that in 1/20 of a second.
Think About It!
  • How might better understanding of how dinosaurs moved give scientists a clearer picture of how dinosaurs lived?


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  • How might the study change the way people view T. rex and other dinosaurs?
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    "We now know that a T. rex would have been front-heavy, turned slowly, and could manage no more than a leisurely jog," said scientist John Hutchinson, who led the research.

    Poor T. rex. Scientists don't mean to pick on it. They studied other dinosaurs too. The Compsognathus, a small two-legged creature, was the fastest dino. It clipped along at about 40 miles per hour. The Velociraptor reached speeds of 24.2 miles per hour, and the Allosaurus maxed out at 21 miles per hour. Next, the scientists hope to use the information to create a 3-D model of dinosaur movement.

    Dino Dig out the names of 10 dinosaurs in our word search.


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