Why Did T Rex Have Such Tiny Arms?
It's easy to assume that every trait - including stubby arms on a terrifying predator - must be beneficial, but the forces of evolution don't really work like that. Thanks to the University...
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Hi, this is Kate from MinuteEarth. Paleontologists have long questioned why Tyrannosaurus Rex – a giant killing machine with 9-inch-long daggers for teeth – had such puny arms. Were short arms particularly useful when grappling with prey, or when Sexy Rexy was in mating mode? Did they provide just the right leverage when getting up after a nap? Maybe. Like some evolutionary traits, from the gecko's camouflage, to the human's opposable thumb, to the orchid's deceiving shape, perhaps those little limbs gave T. Rex some real advantage. But it’s also quite possible that they didn’t. For one thing, T. Rex might have ended up with small arms simply because big - or even normal-sized - arms were a DISadvantage. Perhaps once T-rex’s ancestor...
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Hi, this is Kate from MinuteEarth. Paleontologists have long questioned why Tyrannosaurus Rex – a giant killing machine with 9-inch-long daggers for teeth – had such puny arms. Were short arms particularly useful when grappling with prey, or when Sexy Rexy was in mating mode? Did they provide just the right leverage when getting up after a nap? Maybe. Like some evolutionary traits, from the gecko's camouflage, to the human's opposable thumb, to the orchid's deceiving shape, perhaps those little limbs gave T. Rex some real advantage. But it’s also quite possible that they didn’t. For one thing, T. Rex might have ended up with small arms simply because big - or even normal-sized - arms were a DISadvantage. Perhaps once T-rex’s ancestor...
