Science says 'Jurassic Park' was wrong about how the T. rex moved

The Tyrannosaurus rex is a little less fearsome in the latest scientific discovery. New research from the University of Manchester found that the T. rex couldn’t run as swiftly as previously believed. Instead of 45 mph, the T. rex could only hit 5 to 15 mph, according to the study.

This week on “Pat & Stu,” the guys were puzzled because they remembered seeing T. rex run with terrifying speed in Steven Spielberg’s famous “documentary” on dinosaurs: “Jurassic Park.”

“That just changes everything,” Pat Gray said.

The scientists built on previous research and demonstrated that the T. rex’s long limbs wouldn’t have been conducive to running at high speeds, saying the dinosaur’s legs might actually break under its weight if it ran too quickly. In the study, they used “a new approach that combines two separate biomechanical techniques (multibody dynamic analysis and skeletal stress analysis) to demonstrate that true running gaits would probably lead to unacceptably high skeletal loads in T. rex.”

Stu Burguiere pointed out that science is never really “settled” when researchers can make these new discoveries that contradict everything we learned earlier.

“It’s interesting because they had a scientific consensus, Pat. …  And now they no longer have a scientific consensus,” he said.

But Stu posed an important question: Why don’t scientists just go to someone who was alive in the age of dinosaurs for their research?

“Jeffy, what were they like?” he asked jokingly. “What were the T. rexes like?”

To see more from Pat & Stu, visit their channel on TheBlaze and listen live to “Pat & Stu” with Pat Gray, Stu Burguiere and Jeffy Fisher weekdays 5–7 p.m. ET, only on TheBlaze Radio Network.