T rex footprints reveal the giant dinosaur walked, not ran
A newly discovered trackway in North Dakota provides the first evidence of an adult T. rex walking at a steady pace of 3.5 to 4.5 miles per hour. These footprints offer a rare, direct look at the movement patterns of the predator rather than relying solely on skeletal analysis.
Why it matters
This discovery challenges previous assumptions about the locomotion and energy expenditure of large theropod dinosaurs.
For decades, paleontologists have studied Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) through bones, teeth and isolated footprints. Those fossils reveal what the animal looked like, how large it was and what it may have eaten, but they rarely show the creature in motion. That changed with the discovery of a short trail in southwestern North Dakota. Four enormous three-toed footprints, pressed into mud about 66.5 million years ago, form the first known trackway attributed to an adult T. rex. The spacing between the prints suggests that the animal was moving at roughly 3.5 to 4.5 miles per hour, a pace comparable to a brisk human walk.
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