Can we really tell exactly how fast the larger dinosaurs were able to move? If so, how?

Question

Everyone seems to think of the larger dinosaurs as relatively slow lumbering creatures. Well, what if something like the T-Rex was able to quickly dart around like a modern day lizard can?

Answer 1

No.  No one has actually seen a living dinosaur, let alone clock one with radar!

Scientiests make guesses bases on the size of the bones, particularly the size of the femur in relationship to the rest of the animal.

They THINK a T. Rex was good for about 35 miles-per-hour.  But nobody can prove it.

Typically, the large the animal, the slower it moves. That is the "rule" that most dinosaur estimates are based on.

Answer 2

This link may help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur

Answer 3

Too many things go into running to be able to tell.  Nutrition, warm/cold-bloodedness, climate, atmospheric oxygen content, bone structure and muscle attachment sites, not to mention any behavioral patterns that may have existed.  Paleontologists can get good guesses by studying modern animals like flightless birds and trying to determine some of the unknown variables, but guesses are just that; guesses.

Answer 4

Some computer-graphic people team up with scientists and study dinosaur bone structures and can determine (I don't think it was too accurate) what a dinosaur's maximum speed was. They could have figured out where muscles were placed by looking at imprints on bones, and etc.

However, I think fossilized footprints give us the most information. By calculating the depth and stride length, you can get a pretty accurate estimate on how fast the dinosaur was moving at that time. Unfortunately, the downside is that these fossilized footprints are very rare, and tyrannosaur footprints haven't been reported. The entire thing is still being debated, and unless we have more evidence, it will be hard to determine for sure exactly how fast large dinosaurs, or even any size of dinosaur could move.

Answer 5

You can make good guesses by looking at the bones, figuring how big the muscles must be, and figuring how much total weight the animal must have had.  It's hard and error prone.

You can also look at dinosaur tracks and see how far apart the are.  You can often tell which kind of dinosaur it was by the print. This gives you, not the maximum speed, but how fast the animal actually moved.

Some running prints have been found.