T. Rex Versus David Beckham: Sorry, mate, you’re lunch

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Scientists from the University of Manchester, England said the lumbering Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur would have been able to outrun most modern-day sports stars. They used computer models and calculated the top speeds for five meat-eating dinosaurs.

The study published in the Royal Society’s Biological Sciences reported that Velociraptor, portrayed in the movie “Jurassic Park” could run 24 mph (38 kilometers per hour), a six ton T. Rex could run speeds up to 18 mph (29 kilometers per hour). The 6.6 pound (3 kilogram) Compsognathus, the smallest of the five dinosaurs in the study could run up to 40 mph, which is also the faster than any current living animal running on two legs. Humans on the other hand can run a top speed of 25 mph (40 kilometers per hour).

Phil Manning, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester said:

“Our research, which used the minimum leg-muscle mass T. Rex required for movement, suggests that while not incredibly fast, this carnivore was certainly capable of running and would have little difficulty in chasing down footballer David Beckham, for instance,”

In the computer model, they fed the information about the skeletal and muscular structure of the dinosaurs and did a simulation to see how fast the animals can move. They verified the study by feeding in the human information and it churned out the exact top speed of humans.

William Sellers, a zoologist at the University of Manchester said:

People have estimated speeds before, but they have always been indirect estimates and hard to verify. What we found is they were all perfectly capable of running.”

They are also studying using the computer models to see how the dinosaur coped with changing weather patterns which will help modern species to cope up with climate change.

The dinosaurs may outrun David Beckham but can they bend the ball like him?