TYRANNOSAURUS REX had a big bum, making it a quicker, more agile hunter than thought.
Scott Persons and of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, studied modern-day reptiles to help them reconstruct the tail muscles of T. rex from fossilised bones. They found that the big muscle on the underside of the tail, called the caudofemoralis, was up to 45 per cent larger than had been thought (Anatomical Record, ). 鈥淲hen you think of T. rex, think of something with a very, very beefy rear end,鈥� says Persons.
The caudofemoralis was used to pull the legs back, providing propulsion. T. rex could have added oomph to its stride by swinging its tail away from the contracting muscle to pull the leg back even faster, as crocodiles do. This would have made it a formidable predator despite its lumbering size.
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