Author: Biology News Net
When we hear "T. rex", we think of a huge monstrous dinosaur with a pointlessly big head and big tail. However, extensive research shows that powerful tail muscles made the giant dinosaur one of the fastest moving hunters of its time. The paleontology student researching this, Scott Persons, began his research by comparing the tales of reptiles such as crocodiles and Komodo dragons to the T. rex's tail. He realized that for all of the animals he had been researching, the biggest muscles were attached to upper leg bones. The muscles are called "caudofemoralis muscles" and provide the power stroke which may have been a key thing in the T. rex's quick movements. However, there is a distinctive difference between other reptiles/animal's bones. The tails of both T.rex and modern animals are given their shape and strength by rib bones attached to the vertebrae. Persons found that the ribs in the tail of T. rex are located much higher on the tail. That leaves much more room along the lower end of the tail for the caudofemoralis muscles to bulk-up and expand. Without rib bones to limit the size of the caudofemoralis muscles, they became a robust power-plant enabling T.rex to run.
This article was interesting to me because I haven't really learned about dinosaurs in the past but I wanted to know a little more about them. I think it's really cool how scientists are able to take a skeleton and compare it to things alive today - it really shows how science has advanced over the past few centuries. The article also helped me understand a bit more about how there are animals that are made to fit each environment and thrive in it, such as the T. rex, and there are animals that may not do so well. This is just a simple concept in each ecosystem - natural selection.
Wow! That's really cool!
ReplyDeleteWhenever I think of a Tyrannosaurus running, I always thought that it was the large legs/leg muscles that were the key to running fast. In all these dinosaur movies, dinosaurs always have such big legs, so it's interesting to find out that all that power really came from the T-Rex tail. I've been interested in dinosaurs for about 7 years (since first grade), and that was nice and refreshing from all the animal articles I've been reading. Good paraphrasing! :)
Well don't want to be hit in the head with that tail!
ReplyDeleteGreat Job! I thought it was interesting cause i always thought that it's legs and teeth (have you seen the size of those things) were what made it run fast (well teeth just made it kinda scary) but that fact that most of a T-rex's power comes from it tail! Well i never would have thought about that.
I like how you quite often use your voice and not just copying stuff from the actual article. Great job! :)
ReplyDeleteTHAT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete