New Research Shows Humans Could Outrun T. Rex

bongey writes: T-Rex would have a hard time even catching an average human running, much less Usain Bolt or Jeeps, without shattering their legs into pieces. New research based on simulations that include the load on the bones show that T-Rex would have a hard time running faster than 12 miles per hour (5.4 meters per second) without bones breaking. The new research correlates to speeds calculated from adolescence sized T-Rex dinosaur footprints in 2016, which showed walking speeds to be only 2-5mph, and estimated running speeds 11-18 mph. Gizmodo notes that while T. rex was unable to pursue its prey at high speeds, high speed is a relative term. "For reference, typical humans can sprint anywhere between eight to 15 miles per hour (elite athletes can exceed 20 mph). So to outrun a T. rex, many animals -- or fictional humans -- would still have to run like hell."

Comments

Objects in the mirror...

[Anonymous Coward]

...are slower than they appear

Scavenger

[Lennie]

While there seem to be a large number of people who keep thinking T-Rex is a hunter.

Have to say, I'm more and more in the camp which suggest that T-Rex is more like a vulture. T-Rex has a big noose, body for long walks, not sprints, etc.

Re:Scavenger

[omfglearntoplay]

T-rex was definitely a hunter. They've found more than one example of T-rex teeth scars in triceratops that survived and had the scars heal over proving that the triceratops lived through the battle and healed up. You can't tell me the mama T-rex was defending her babies from a carnivorous triceratops, and almost all dino experts say T-rex was a hunter with such evidence. Here is a link citing an embedded T-rex tooth in a hadrosaur, so you can't say it was another animal that attacked.

https://www.theguardian.com/sc...

I quote, "This is unambiguous evidence that T rex was an active predator," the authors write in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Such evidence is rare in the fossil record for good reason â" prey rarely escapes."

I suspect only Horner is really into shaking things up for attention, like with the idea that T-rex was a vulture. More attention for dinosaurs, OK I get it, but take some of those wild theories with a grain of salt. Why would T-rex have to be incredibly fast? Why not be an ambush predator? Big cats are not faster than their prey for the most part, yet they survive by being hunters. Crocodilians can't cover ground fast, but with the element of surprise have been incredibly successful. All T-rex needed was to hide in the brush and wait, I suspect. One clamp of those incredibly powerful, the most powerful land jaws probably, bite is all that was often needed I bet.

One Swallow Does Not A Summer Make

[ytene]

If you click through and read the article, you will find a discussion that explains that this entire conclusion was based on a rare set of footprints that were found to be of a certain spacing. They then started a variety of different extrapolations, covering values such as estimating the height of the dinosaur's hips above the ground, the weight of the dinosaur and so on.

Their determination that this set of tracks came from a Tyrannosaur was made on the basis that there is no knowledge of any other matching species in that area at that time.

Having measured the stride of this dinosaur and estimated the height of its hips above the ground, they then used measurements taken from "living, walking bipeds" to make their claim.


Now, I'm all in favour of scientific research and analysis. I love reading about cutting edge insights to the world around us. I think it enriches our lives. On the other hand, when I read this article published on the Science website, the first thought that came to me was, "There are an awful lot of assumptions and approximations in here..."

They don't know, definitively, that this was a T-Rex.
They don't know what it was doing at the time the tracks were made [for example, if it had been stalking prey, maybe it was treading softly, moving slowly, so perhaps it's steps were uncharacteristic.
They don't know whether it was injured, or weak, or unwell. You can't determine the nutritional state of a hundreds-of-millions-of-years-dead dinosaur from a footprint, can you?
They are also assuming that things like the metabolic efficiency, the muscular strength and even the bone density of dinosaurs are all perfectly equivalent to what we see today. In other words, they are cherry-picking facts to fit their theories.


I am absolutely certain that there is some great research and excellent work being undertaken by the Team that made this announcement, but this is far, far short of science. This is assumption and theory and conjecture based upon an entirely incomplete fact base.

In one sense it is not worth being concerned over one-off articles like this. In the fullness of time we would expect scientific peer review to challenge and refine both the method of analysis and the final conclusions of this piece of work. Well, hopefully. The concern with this specific story is evidenced by the fact that it has been picked up and linked here, on slashdot. Which means it will be picked up by other science and tech news outlets and perhaps even broader news media. This is fine if the original work is robust and defensible, but in this case [at least as far as the original piece goes] that does not appear to be true... Oh well.

Re:One Swallow Does Not A Summer Make

[phayes]

Sometimes the best answer to some questions is "that cannot be determined with the available facts" and that indeed seems to be the case here.

Their methodology in determining the speed of a (assumed healthy) T-Rex (assumed to be) walking at it's best speed contains too many assumptions that _cannot_ be proven to be reliable. The parable of the blind men that each examined a different part of an elephant and gave different descriptions applies here -- It's a wall said the one that touched it's ribcage, no it's a tree-trunk, said the one that touched it's foot/leg, no, it's a spear said the one who touched a tusk, etc.

Their work is of some interest and may indeed help to determine T-Rex's top speed -- if it is corroborated with other sources that do not use the same assumptions.

Re:One Swallow Does Not A Summer Make

[TheRaven64]

Most things about dinosaurs need to be taken with a very large pinch of salt, because you're often extrapolating entire species from under half a dozen samples of skeletons. The problem is in the translation from the scientific paper to the mainstream news. The first will list all of the caveats and the limits of their model (or be published somewhere crap and ignored by most researchers), the latter will present it as truth.

One of the big problems for our society is that we often teach science as a religion with a set of facts, rather than as a process. When the facts are shown to be incorrect, people lose faith in science, rather than seeing an example of science working precisely as the process is meant to work.

Re:Jabba...

[Xenx]

If running from a T-Rex was an actual concern, I would venture most people would be fit enough to pull it off.

You must be joking

[Viol8]

I'm really not convinced by these arguments that our ancestors were somehow multi marathon fit and could run down anything on the plain. No native peoples today do that - they wound first with spears or arrows then follow it until it dies, they don't wear it down physically!

As for running down a horse, you must be joking. Horses can gallop then trot for hours, long after even the fittest marathon runner would be in a sweaty heap on the ground panting like dog. And unless you're a first class tracker you're never going to find that horse that has probably put 10 miles between you and him in the first hour.

Re:You must be joking

[Anonymous Coward]

Sir David Attenborough would like a word with you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o

It's not about running constantly behind the prey, it's about running it into places it can't perform to its fullest and never letting it rest. Most prey animals (young, sick, injured) are already wheezing after their first good sprint, the rest of the pursuit is making sure it can't reach somewhere to rest and cool off and occurs at a much more reasonable pace. Then when you've finally broken the animal you make one last sprint and it'll likely expire from the shock.

Re:You must be joking

[Trailer Trash]

I'm really not convinced by these arguments that our ancestors were somehow multi marathon fit and could run down anything on the plain. No native peoples today do that - they wound first with spears or arrows then follow it until it dies, they don't wear it down physically!

As for running down a horse, you must be joking. Horses can gallop then trot for hours, long after even the fittest marathon runner would be in a sweaty heap on the ground panting like dog. And unless you're a first class tracker you're never going to find that horse that has probably put 10 miles between you and him in the first hour.

In the epilogue to the book "Black Elk Speaks" the author describes how the tribe that he was studying made moccasins. This describes "endurance hunting" while also shattering the silly myth that the American Indians weren't wasteful.

The story is about an Indian in his 60s who needed a new pair of moccasins. The moccasins were made of deer hide, and you had to hunt and kill the deer yourself. Nothing else was done with the deer - the entire carcass was left to rot. Only the skin for the moccasins was taken. The author was amazed that the guy chased the deer to exhaustion. Yes, the deer outran him. At first. Deer can sprint really well, just not very far. The human, on the other hand, wasn't as good of a sprinter but he easily made up for it with endurance.

When the deer was exhausted he suffocated it while saying a prayer, basically in a ritualistic manner. When the deer was dead, he took the skin.

Anyway, yes, endurance hunting is a real thing. For horses? Probably not. But deer? Yes.

Re:Humans Could Outrun T. Rex

[TheRaven64]

Marathon runners run quite slowly, because they have to keep going for hours. This is how primitive humans caught their prey: not by being faster, but by having a lot more stamina and keeping catching up and forcing the prey to spring until it reached exhaustion. Most humans can run for short periods a lot faster than they can jog a marathon. That said, 15mph is a 4 minute mile, which under a thousand humans have ever done, so if the T. Rex doesn't give up after about 30 seconds then you're probably going to become eaten.

Re: Outrun the t-rex...

[Anonymous Coward]

...and promptly crashes into a tree which, according to your assertion, he cannot see.