The Tyrannosaurus Rex is known for its gigantic size, with huge hind legs and small front legs. It was long thought that he could use his large hind legs to sprint hard for short periods while hunting, but according to researchers at the University of Maryland, the T. rex used his large legs to search for prey for longer periods of time.
For small and medium-sized dinosaurs, longer legs mean that you can sprint quickly. However, the speed of large dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus, is limited by its size.
The long legs ensure that these large primal reptiles could move more efficiently, the researchers write in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.
American and Canadian researchers examined the body proportions of more than seventy dinosaur species that walked on two legs. With those proportions, they could estimate how much energy the dinosaurs needed to move forward.
This showed that the larger big legged dinosaurs needed less energy to move around. This is useful for the Tyrannosaurus, for example, because it spent a long time looking around for possible prey.
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