Jurassic Park's most iconic scenes should have run a little slower, based on new research suggesting our favourite dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus rex, couldn't manage more than a walk.

Calculating the top speed of the tyrant lizard king seems to be an obsession for paleontologists, who have debated over the decades whether the giant predator was a sprinter or a stroller. It turns out that while T. rex could still take quick steps, any serious gait would leave it with more than just a bad case of shin splints.

The research, led by scientists from the University of Manchester in the UK, created a detailed computer model that used multi-body system dynamics – which looks at connected solid objects – to analyze the bends and twists applied to different parts of a skeleton.

Their model rex was based on a specimen dug up in 1987 called BHI 3033, also known as Stan to his pals.

CT scans of various fossils provided limits the team could work with to decide the kinds of forces bones could take before they were damaged.

Working out the mass of any dinosaur isn't without its challenges, but the researchers settled on a conservative 7206.7 kilograms (about 15,900 pounds) of meat and bone for their calculations.

From there it was a matter of determining the forces of impact bones would experience as the dinosaur built up speed, taking into account hypothetical soft tissues that could cushion the blow.

Speeds above 27.7 kilometers (17 miles) per hour would have pushed the limits on Stan's bones, which were estimated to have a yield strength of about 200 megapascals (29,000 psi).

For comparison, average human walking speed is around 4.8 km/h (3mph), jogging speed is around 8-9km/h (5-6mph), and Usain Bolt can run 100m in roughly 38km/h (23.7mph).

A more reasonable estimate on bone strength, according to the researchers, would be around half that 27.7 km/h at the upper limit, putting our buddy Stan in the ballpark of someone sprinting to catch a bus.

"Therefore, even if safety factors below the lower limit seen in living animals are allowed, our analysis demonstrates that T. rex was not mechanically capable of true running gaits," the researchers write in their report.

Estimates on an adult T. rex's maximum velocity have ranged in the past have looked at everything from body configurations and muscle attachments to their fossilized footprints, with estimates ranging from 18 km/h (11.2mph) to a very speedy 54km/h (33.6mph).

This research puts some constraints on those higher estimates, suggesting T. rexcould still take some quick steps with those long limbs, but couldn't break into a sprint that would chase down Jeff Goldblum in a jeep.

"Here we present a new approach that combines two separate biomechanical techniques to demonstrate that true running gaits would probably lead to unacceptably high skeletal loads in T. rex," says lead researcher William Sellers from the University of Manchester.

That means the big Tyrannosaur would never have been airborne as it leaped from foot to foot, keeping its speed down to a minimum.

A slower T. rex might make for less thrilling blockbusters, but it could help us understand how the dinosaur's hunting Behaviour shifted as it evolved.

Bigger predators can take down prey that would usually have size on their side, meaning high speed wouldn't need to be an issue.

But what of junior Tyrannosaur rex? Could they have been agile sprinters? The model suggests possibly not, but more research would be needed to validate the idea.

Although limited to T. rex in this study, there's no reason the same model couldn't be applied to any other long-extinct creature we're curious about.

"Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the largest bipedal animals to have ever evolved and walked the Earth," says Sellers.

"So it represents a useful model for understanding the biomechanics of other similar animals."

We still don't advocate trying to outrun a T.rex if ever given the opportunity, but it might help knowing if you get your running shoes on, Stan might not risk the leg pain.

This research was published in Peer J.

SEE ALSO: A dinosaur tooth discovered in Appalachia suggests big horned dinosaurs may have lived in the eastern US

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The dragons from Game of Thrones may be fictitious, but some of these real-life animals aren't so different. The closest were the pterosaurs, whose name literally translates to "winged lizard". There are a few other dragon-esque animals.

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• About 66 million years ago, a 9-kilometer-wide asteroid slammed into Earth, creating the Chicxulub crater and triggering the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.
• Skies filled with soot and gas, firestorms covered the planet, and global temperatures plummeted, killing 75% of life on Earth, including the dinosaurs.
• But a new study found that the asteroid was that devastating only because of where it struck.

Some 66 million years ago, a city-size asteroid slammed into Earth near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

The massive impact created the 180-kilometer-wide Chicxulub crater and triggered the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event that wiped out 75% of Earth's biodiversity, including almost all the dinosaurs that had dominated life on land for more than 130 million years.

But that event was so devastating only because of the location the asteroid hit, a study published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports found. If it had hit elsewhere on Earth, the dinosaurs might have survived, the authors say.

The authors attribute the extinction event to the aftereffects of the impact. When the 9-kilometer-wide asteroid slammed into the planet, it caused earthquakes, triggered firestorms and massive tsunamis, and filled the air with gas and soot that caused drastic global cooling.

Another recent study found that the cooling event saw surface temperatures plummet an average of about 47 degrees Fahrenheit overnight and remain that way for years.

The new study found that the cooling event was so severe because the asteroid struck a particularly hydrocarbon-rich region and flooded the sky with soot — but that only about 13% of the planet's surface has enough sedimentary organic material and sulfur to have caused such an extreme effect.

In other words, if the asteroid had struck anywhere on the 87% of the planet's surface that isn't as hydrocarbon-rich, the dinosaurs might have survived. As it happened, the only dinosaurs to make it through the event were avian dinosaurs — birds. The loss of the rest created a space for mammals to thrive.

Like all theories on the extinction of the dinosaurs, this one is controversial. Most researchers attribute the extinction event to the asteroid strike, but there are various interpretations of why it was so devastating.

The authors of the recent study on the global cooling that followed the event told The Washington Post that it was gases released by the impact that caused the dramatic climate change, not necessarily soot — though they said the specific region the asteroid struck was crucial. Firestorms, toxic chemicals, and acidified oceans may have also played a role.

Other researchers have said the impact triggered an intense period of volcanic activity on the other side of the world that also would have filled the skies with sulfur and soot for years.

An asteroid striking the planet in one of the places that could have triggered these effects is an extremely-low-probability event — but one that changed the history of life on Earth, the Scientific Reports study's authors say.

SEE ALSO: The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs triggered a global disaster far worse than scientists previously thought

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• A dinosaur newly discovered in Mongolia was most likely semiaquatic, a trait that hadn't been found in dinosaurs before.
• The finding helps establish a new subfamily of dinosaurs.
• The creature had a neck like a goose's, wings similar to those of penguins, and sharp claws like those of velociraptors.

Birds are the modern incarnation of dinosaurs.

But some birds live in ways we haven't observed in the dinosaur kingdom. Ducks, for example, alternate between water and land habitats, able to take advantage of both.

Until now, that hadn't been seen in dinosaurs, but the discovery of a duck-like dinosaur from Mongolia may change that.

The new dinosaur, Halszkaraptor escuilliei, was announced on Wednesday in the journal Nature. The remarkably complete fossil skeleton that paleontologists analyzed indicates it was likely a semiaquatic dinosaur, able to both swim and move about on land.

"This is the first dinosaur with a lifestyle similar to aquatic birds — this indicates that these dinosaurs were able to exploit an environment that was not considered in our previous interpretation of dinosaur history," Andrea Cau, a paleontologist at the Giovanni Capellini Geological Museum of the University of Bologna, said in an email.

This finding helps establish a new subfamily of similar dinosaurs, according to the paper. Several other fossil specimens from the same region fit into this family, indicating they're part of the same small branch on the evolutionary tree.

The discovery "illustrates how much of the diversity of Dinosauria remains undiscovered, even in intensely studied regions such as Mongolia," the authors wrote.

Researchers used a scanning method that Cau, the lead author of the study, described as "the most advanced scanning technology ever done on a fossil" to collect about 6,000 GB of data on the fossil while it was still partially embedded in rock. The dinosaur lived between 71 million and 75 million years ago.

It's hard to prove that this was, in fact, a semiaquatic creature, but the specimen has several features that match those of semiaquatic and fully aquatic reptiles and birds. Its arms had structures similar to those that birds like penguins use to swim. And it had a neck like a goose's, with rows of teeth in its mouth.

But instead of webbed feet, it had claws and toes like those of theropod family, which includes velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus rex.

The dinosaur most likely fed on fish, crustaceans, and small reptiles and mammals, Cau said. The other members of this subfamily would have been a similar size.

The finding shows that there's still plenty of new history to be revealed as paleontologists scour the Earth for remains of the past.

SEE ALSO: These are 15 of the best photos scientists took in 2017 — and they show the world in stunning ways

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NOW WATCH: Scientists uncovered a bloody, feathered dinosaur tail that got stuck in tree sap 99 million years ago

• Scientists have found a fossil of a 'Mansourasaurus Shahinae' — a dinosaur similar in size to a modern school-bus. 
•  It was 33ft long and weighed 5.5 tons.
• The grasslands, savannas, and rain forests of Africa often conceal the underground rock that may be home to undiscovered fossils. 
• The Mansourasaurus was closer in build to European and Asian titanosaurs than to those from Africa, suggesting that dinosaurs were able to move between the continents. 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have unearthed in a Sahara Desert oasis in Egypt fossils of a long-necked, four-legged, school bus-sized dinosaur that lived roughly 80 million years ago, a discovery that sheds light on a mysterious time period in the history of dinosaurs in Africa.

Researchers said on Monday the plant-eating Cretaceous Period dinosaur, named Mansourasaurus shahinae, was nearly 33 feet (10 meters) long and weighed 5.5 tons (5,000 kg) and was a member of a group called titanosaurs that included Earth's largest-ever land animals. Like many titanosaurs, Mansourasaurus boasted bony plates called osteoderms embedded in its skin.

Mansourasaurus, which lived near the shore of the ancient ocean that preceded the Mediterranean Sea, is one of the very few dinosaurs known from the last 15 million years of the Mesozoic Era, or age of dinosaurs, on mainland Africa. Madagascar had a separate geologic history.

Its remains, found at the Dakhla Oasis in central Egypt, are the most complete of any mainland African land vertebrate during an even larger time span, the roughly 30 million years before the dinosaur mass extinction 66 million years ago, said paleontologist Hesham Sallam of Egypt's Mansoura University, who led the study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

The scientists recovered parts of its skull, lower jaw, neck and back vertebrae, ribs, shoulder and forelimb, back foot and osteoderms.

A lot of Africa is covered in grasslands, savannas and rain forests that obscure underlying rock where fossils may be found, said postdoctoral researcher Eric Gorscak of the Field Museum in Chicago, who was formerly at Ohio University.

While as massive as a bull African elephant, Mansourasaurus was modestly sized next to titanosaur cousins such as South America's Argentinosaurus, Dreadnoughtus and Patagotitan and Africa's Paralititan, some exceeding 100 feet (30 meters) long.

"Mansourasaurus, though a big animal by today’s standards, was a pipsqueak compared to some other titanosaurs," said paleontologist Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.

The researchers determined Mansourasaurus was more closely related to European and Asian titanosaurs than to those from elsewhere in Africa and other Southern Hemisphere land masses including South America formerly joined in a super-continent called Gondwana.

"This, in turn, demonstrates for the first time that at least some dinosaurs could move between North Africa and southern Europe at the end of the Mesozoic, and runs counter to long-standing hypotheses that have argued that Africa’s dinosaur faunas were isolated from others during this time," Lamanna said.

(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Peter Cooney)

SEE ALSO: Scientists have discovered a new type of wolf for the first time in 150 years

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• The discovery of a dinosaur footprint at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 2012 led to the discovery of one of the richest sets of prehistoric tracks from the Cretaceous Period ever seen.
• Among the footprints is "the mother lode of Cretaceous mammal tracks," according to one of the authors of a new study examining the site.
• The discovery shows how early prehistoric mammals interacted with dinosaurs and flying reptiles like pterosaurs more than 100 million years ago.

The scientific treasures at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland stretch back far before the space age, as a recent discovery illustrates.

It turns out they go at least back to the Cretaceous Period, when small mammals scurried about, intermingling with dinosaurs and hiding from hunting pterosaurs that swooped down from the skies.

That's part of the story told by a remarkable slab of sandstone discovered in 2012. The rock contains more than 70 tracks from dinosaurs and mammals, which are described in a new paper published in the journal Scientific Reports on Wednesday.

The wealth of information contained in the slab is enough to transform what we know about how early mammals interacted with dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.

"The concentration of mammal tracks on this site is orders of magnitude higher than any other site in the world," Martin Lockley, a paleontologist with the University of Colorado, Denver and a co-author on the new paper, said in a feature on the NASA Goddard website. "I don't think I've ever seen a slab this size, which is a couple of square meters, where you have over 70 footprints of so many different types. This is the mother lode of Cretaceous mammal tracks."

An astounding discovery

The site was first uncovered on June 25, 2012, by Ray Stanford, a local dinosaur track expert whose wife Sheila works at Goddard. As the Washington Post's story about the original discovery tells it, Stanford was struck a hunch: He decided to return to a site on the campus where years before he'd found a rock with the imprint of a track from a theropod, a carnivorous dinosaur in the same family as the velociraptor.

There was a lot there waiting to be found.

The discoveries started with a print from a nodosaur, a large plant-eating dinosaur covered in spiky armor.

"Think of it as a four-footed tank," Stanford said at the time.

But that wasn't all. As the new study describes, there were more nodosaur tracks waiting to be found, along with tracks from sauropods, massive lumbering giants with long necks and long tails. There were also tracks from small theropods — three-toed predators from the family of Tyrannosaurus and the Velociraptor — though these ones were the size of crows'. Pterosaur tracks showed that flying reptiles hunted in the area, too.

In addition to all of those, scientists also found many mammal tracks, some likely from species that had never been studied.

These creatures were mostly about the size of squirrels and were probably being hunted by the theropods and pterosaurs. At least one set of tracks is the largest set of mammal footprints — about the size of tracks from a modern raccoon — ever found from the Cretaceous period.

"This could be the key to understanding some of the smaller finds from the area, so it brings everything together," Lockley told the NASA team. "This is the Cretaceous equivalent of the Rosetta stone."

There's something poetic about this astounding discovery being found at a place scientists analyze both the future and, by studying the stars, the past.

As Jim Garvin, the chief scientist at NASA Goddard put it in 2013, we're just now seeing the light that was emitted by stars back when these prehistoric creatures walked the Earth.

"One of the amazing aspects of this find is that some of the starlight now seen in the night sky by astronomers was created in far-distant galaxies when these dinosaurs were walking on mud flats in Cretaceous Maryland where Goddard is now located," Garvin said in 2013. "That starlight (from within the Virgo Supercluster) is only now reaching Earth after having traveled through deep space for 100 million years."

SEE ALSO: How the 'Blue Planet II' production team dealt with a leak when their sub was 1,500 feet deep in Antarctic waters

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NOW WATCH: Super-Earths are real and they could be an even better place for life than Earth

Humans have had a long history. 3.8 million years in the making, to be precise. From the primordial puddle to the modern day, here's how humans have evolved. The following is a review of the life forms depicted in the video.

The origin of life, Prokaryote, Cyanobacteria, Eukaryote, Choanoflagellate, Platyhelminthes (Flatworms), Pikaia, Haikouichthys, Agnatha, Placodermi, Cephalaspis, Coelacanth, Panderichthys, Tiktaalik, Acanthostega, Ichthyostega, Hynerpeton, Tulerpeton, Westlothiana, Hylonomus, Phthinosuchus, Cynognathus, Repenomamus, Juramaia, Plesiadapis, Carpolestes, Aegyptopithecus, Proconsul, Sivapithecus, Ouranopithecus, Orrorin, Ardipithecus, Australopithecus, Homo erectus, Neanderthal, Homo sapiens.

Special Thanks to Dr. Briana Pobiner, Research Scientist and Museum Educator of the Human Origins Program, Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institute.

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• Massive dinosaur footprints were discovered by researchers in Scotland.
• The footprints, which belonged to a species of long-necked dinosaur called sauropods, were dated to 170 million years ago.
• There are only a few confirmed fossils from that time period, so these finds may help scientists paint a better picture of life in that era. 

Researchers identified huge dinosaur footprints in the tidal areas of Scotland's remote Isle of Skye, and the finds could shed new light on a little-understood time period over a hundred million years ago.

The study was published in the Scottish Journal of Geology on Monday, part of a joint research effort between scientists at the University of Edinburgh, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The researchers found over 50 footprints, created around 170 million years ago — the middle Jurassic period, from which only a few fossils have been found — by a species of long-necked dinosaur called sauropods.

The footprints were first spotted by a student in 2016 on Skye, the study's co-author, Steve Brusatte told CNN. 

"We regularly go there to hunt for dinosaur footprints and clues, when the tide went out we noticed them," Brusatte told CNN.

After the first footprints were spotted, the researchers analyzed them using drones and field-based techniques to create a comprehensive map of the site.

The researchers believe the largest footprint belonged to a 10-ton beast that may have been almost 50 feet long.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the fossilized prints is that they were laid down side-by-side with theropod prints, which are predecessors of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. This indicates that the two species — one predator and one herbivore — could have coexisted peacefully when the Isle of Skye was much warmer. 

"This new site records two different types of dinosaurs — long-necked cousins of Brontosaurus and sharp-toothed cousins of T. rex — hanging around a shallow lagoon, back when Scotland was much warmer and dinosaurs were beginning their march to global dominance," Brusatte wrote on the University of Edinburgh's website. 

SEE ALSO: The mystery of dinosaurs' giant horns may finally be solved — and it's about love, not war

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NOW WATCH: What happens when you hold in your pee for too long

• Chris Jones proposed to his girlfriend, Katie Parker, in the middle of the London Marathon on Sunday.
• He was wearing a dinosaur costume.
• A video of Parker joyously freaking out went viral.
• Jones said he ran the marathon in a dinosaur costume to raise money for the children's hospital that treated his cousin who was infected with a rare and deadly flesh-eating virus.
  

At Sunday's London Marathon, Chris Jones ran all 26.2 miles while wearing a Tyrannosaurus Rex costume.

But halfway through, he zipped off his dinosaur costume and proposed to his girlfriend, Katie Parker.

"I've been planning for about a year now," Jones told INSIDER. "She was surprised. She had no idea."

Jones ran the marathon in costume to raise money for the Evelina Children's Hospital, which treated his cousin James when he was infected and nearly killed by a rare, flesh-eating virus when he was 20 months old.

After two months of constant treatment in the hospital, James was finally cured. Now, about six years later, Jones said the apparent under-funding of the National Health Service in the UK, which pays for treatment like what Jones received, inspired him to raise money for the hospital.

"It was like a really rare strain at the time," Jones said. "They had to research and develop whilst they were treating him. They probably operated him maybe 20 or 30 times to basically repair his upper arm."

Jones ran the marathon with Parker's father, Phil Parker, who carried the ring and was dressed as a "Jurassic Park" ranger. The two arranged for a group of around 20 friends and family members to be at a "cheer point" on Tower Bridge, around halfway through the marathon's course.

"It was very emotional. She cried. I cried. Her dad cried. Everyone cried," Jones said. "Everyone was just in shock."

A BBC reporter interviewed the couple after the proposal. Parker's overjoyed reaction went viral.

Later on, Jones posted the full proposal video on Twitter.

But after the proposal, Jones had to go. He had 14 miles left in the marathon.

"I had to go run the second half of the race," Jones said. "She was like, 'Oh, he's gone now?'"

Jones finished the marathon in about six hours — still wearing the T-Rex costume.

Afterward, he and Parker attended a party thrown by the Evelina Children's Hospital charity. He raised nearly $3,700.

James is seven now. Jones says he's doing well.

"He's about the most active, sporty little child you can find," Jones said. "He runs around, winning football trophies. At the time, we all thought it was definitely life-threatening, and the hospital did just such a great job of getting him back into health."

As for the T-Rex costume, he said we haven't seen the last of it.

"I won't be walking down the aisle with it," Jones said. "But I might make a speech with it."

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NOW WATCH: North Korean defector: Kim Jong Un 'is a terrorist'

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• If you think there's no chance you'll ever see a live dinosaur on the Earth — be prepared to have your mind blown.
• Paleontologists say that birds evolved from dinosaurs, which means dinosaurs are alive today in the form of their bird descendants.
• Here are more fascinating facts about dinosaurs that prove common myths wrong. 

SEE ALSO: Massive dinosaur footprints found in Scotland could shed light into a little-understood time period

Myth: Dinosaurs are extinct

There was definitely a mass extinction event 65 million years ago (probably related to a giant asteroid that smashed into Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula), and it did spell the end for most dinosaur species. But not all. "Today's birds evolved from dinosaurs, which makes them every bit as much of a dinosaur as T. rex or Triceratops," says paleontologist Steve Brusatte, author of the book, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. "A good analogy is bats. Bats are a weird type of mammal that developed wings and the ability to fly. Birds are a weird type of dinosaur that did the same thing."

Daniel Barta, a PhD candidate at the American Museum of Natural History's Richard Gilder Graduate School, adds that there are more species of birds alive today (at least 10,000) than any other group of land-living animals with backbones. "Dinosaurs are alive and well today in the form of their bird descendants," he says.

Myth: Dinosaurs were scaly lizards

Not necessarily. "There are thousands of fossils of feather-covered dinosaurs that have been found in China over the last two decades," Brusatte says. In fact, fossils show that a cousin of the T. rex called Yutyrannus was covered in downy fluff (which probably didn't make it less scary to its prey). Feathers would have helped dinosaurs regulate their body temperature, so they would have been particularly helpful to smaller animals such as Velociraptors. Even the biggest plant-eaters might have had a little fuzz, like the tufts of hair on elephants.

Myth: Dinosaurs were cold-blooded

Scientists can tell from looking at the microscopic structure of dinosaur bones that they grew rapidly, and only animals like birds and mammals, with fast metabolisms and well-regulated body temperatures, do that. It explains why dinosaurs evolved to have feathers for insulation, but it's still not totally clear whether their body temperatures worked exactly like ours do. "There are a lot of different ways to be 'warm-blooded,'" says Barta. "It is probable that dinosaurs were not exactly like birds or mammals in terms of their metabolism." Check out more interesting animal distinctions you forgot all about.

Gravity's pull prevents most beings from growing tall. But there are some lifeforms that have challenged gravity and won. These lifeforms include varieties of trees, ancient dinosaurs, and creatures of the deep ocean. The following is a transcript of the video.

If you doubled in size, your weight would be 8 times greater. That’s the trouble with growing tall. Gravity’s pull is keeping us all down. But there are a few earthly giants that have fought gravity and won.

The key to growing tall is how you use your energy. That’s why the tallest trees outrank any animal on Earth. Because trees spend all their energy on one thing- growing taller than their fellow neighbors. And there are two trees that are the best growers of them all- giant Redwoods and Mountain Ashes. Redwoods are renowned as the tallest life forms on Earth. But some experts think that Mountain Ashes could grow even taller if humans would stop cutting them down. In fact, the tallest Mountain Ash was just 1 meter shorter than the tallest Redwood.

Unlike plants, animals spend energy on all sorts of tasks like eating, walking, and staying warm. So, they can't grow as tall. But it doesn't mean they're small, either. If you measured this African Elephant from shoulder to ground it would actually be taller than a Giraffe! But thanks to their long, strong necks, giraffes are the tallest animals alive.

And if we look at animals throughout Earth’s history, dinosaurs eclipse them all. These towering Sauropods were the biggest of the bunch. In fact, the top 10 list of tallest animals in history? All dinosaurs.

But, what if we looked at the longest lifeforms too? If you balance the longest Saltwater Crocodile on its nose, it would tie the Giraffe! And if we ignore legs, it gets even better! Tip to tail, the Green Anaconda nearly doubles the height of the tallest Giraffe on record.

But these land dwellers have nothing on animals of the deep. Supported by water, sea life can practically ignore gravity. Which means they can grow much larger. Take the Blue Whale for example. It’s the most massive animal of all time. The entire cast of Broadway’s “The Lion King” can fit on its tongue! But it should be careful not to get tangled up in the tentacles of a Lion’s Mane Jellyfish, which makes a Giant Squid look small by comparison. Now, the biggest fish alive is the Whale Shark. And if we look into the past, things get even bigger.

And where do humans fit into all this? Somewhere near the top, actually. Humans are bigger than 87.6% of mammals on Earth. And the average Dutchman is the tallest of them all. So, there’s no reason to ever feel small again, especially if you’re from the Netherlands.

Fun Fact: The longest lifeform of all time isn’t a plant or animal at all. It’s a Honey Fungus and the biggest one goes on for 3.8 kilometers underneath a forest in Oregon.

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"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" is full of incorrect dino-depictions. Everything from the colors of the dinosaurs to their roars, and even their lack of feathers, here's five things "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" whiffed. Following is a transcript of the video.

The newest Jurassic World installment is upon us like a hungry T-Rex, who doesn’t have any feathers, for some reason.  Here are a few things Hollywood is still getting wrong about dinosaurs.

Many dinosaurs had feathers, but the dinosaurs of “Jurassic World” are covered in scales.  Like crocodiles and lizards. They might have made an effort to stick a few feathers on this dinosaur, but even if they did, that's not even a real animal. It's a hybrid of two different species, which bring us to our next point...

Genetics doesn't work that way. Sure, similar species can breed. That’s how you get a liger (Lion+Tiger). But the Indoraptor isn’t like a liger. It’s a mix of a type of tyrannosaur and raptor. Two very different kinds of animals. It would be more like if you tried to breed a lion with a wolf, instead. It’s just not going to happen. The DNA is not compatible.

Dinosaurs didn't roar. In the first “Jurassic World”, T. rex’s roar was made from a mix of animal sounds and it sounds pretty similar in the new film. But dinosaurs don’t roar like a lion. They’re related to birds. Which means their voice box was probably similar to a bird’s.

Raptors had wings. First of all, raptor hands didn’t droop down like that. In reality, that would only happen if their wrists were broken. In truth, raptors, like birds today, had wings. They couldn’t fly. But the wing shape means that their arms looked nothing like this.

Dinosaurs were colorful. Yeah, “Jurassic World’s” dinosaurs are way too dull. Sure, earth tones like green and brown are common in today’s reptiles. But paleontologists have found that dinosaurs came in a kaleidoscope of bright colors just like today’s birds. Some even had shiny, iridescent feathers!

We get it, Hollywood, T-rex is scarier with its iconic roar. And velociraptors look more vicious without those ridiculous feathers. But C'mon! You could at least add a little more color.  Maybe next time.

This video was made in large part thanks to paleontologist Steve Brusatte, author of “The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs.”

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• Scientists from the Universidad Nacional de San Juan in Argentina have discovered a new type of "giant" dinosaur.
• The dinosaur, named Ingentia Prima, is thought to be a "missing link" between small and large dinosaurs.
• The results suggest that more dinosaur species could be discovered that we still don't know about.

Further light has been shed on ideas previously proposed about how small, bipedal dinosaurs became gigantic, long-necked Sauropods, following a study recently published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Until now, researchers assumed that all types of dinosaurs grew gradually and that they all began to increase in size at roughly the same time during the Jurassic period.

Argentinean researchers at the Universidad Nacional de San Juan, however, believe the trend towards gigantism may have begun much earlier than previously thought: a new dinosaur species dubbed Ingentia Prima has been found and it has none of the features typical among Sauropods — which were previously considered prerequisites for gigantism.

"As soon as we found it, we realized it was something different," said Apaldetti in a press release. "We found a shape, the first giant one among all the dinosaurs. That's the surprise."

After the beginning of the age of the dinosaurs, long-necked giants with bodies weighing in the region of 10 tons came about quite quickly — but just how exactly these column-legged giants sprouted from their comparatively tiny, bipedal ancestors has remained a mystery.

That is, until now. The reason so little was known on the subject was simply that the fossils linking the two dinosaur types together were missing from the timeline — and these recently discovered Sauropod fossils will finally allow conclusions to be drawn on when the growth spurts actually began.

The name of the new species, Ingentia Prima, derives from the Latin words for "huge" and "first", as the researchers consider it to be the "first of the giants". Cecilia Apaldetti and her colleagues at the Universidad Nacional de San Juan estimate the animal to have weighed in at over 10 tons and to have had a length (including neck and tail) of around 10 metres.

With its weight corresponding to that of about two or three African elephants, "Ingentia prima" could give us clues on how and when dinosaur gigantism began, according to the researchers. The scientists believe Igentia Prima could have laid the foundations for the giant Sauropods that would follow approximately 100 million years later.

The fossil also gives clues as to how exactly the dinosaur was able to grow so quickly: the team identified a birdlike respiratory system in which the animal would have been able to obtain oxygen and cool down more quickly. The exposed bones also show signs of separate growth spurts, while later Sauropods increased in size much more gradually, according to the researchers.

These results suggest that more dinosaur species we still don't know about are yet to be discovered.

SEE ALSO: Researchers have found remarkable remains of destroyed planets in space

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• We went behind the scenes of the "Walking With Dinosaurs" show.
• It is the closest that you will get to a real-life Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• Each dinosaur cost around $1 million to make. 

Business Insider went behind the scenes of the "Walking With Dinosaurs" show, a live performance featuring 18 life-sized dinosaurs.

We saw how each of the huge, realistic animatronic dinosaurs is controlled, and it's quite a coordinated operation.

Bigger dinosaurs such as the Tyrannosaurus Rex are controlled by three operators; a driver who moves the dinosaur forwards and two voodoo operators who have control of the head, tail, eyes and sounds of the beast.

The smaller dinosaurs, such as the baby T-Rex and Velociraptors are controlled by performers inside the suit. Each suit weighs 40 kilograms, so much training and practice is needed before climbing into them.

"Walking With Dinosaurs" is currently touring Europe and tickets are available on their website.

Produced and filmed by David Ibekwe. Special thanks to Walking With Dinosaurs.

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Whales are the largest animals to ever exist on this Earth, outweighing even the dinosaurs. These titans roam the oceans in search of food, but that wasn't always the case. Millions of years ago they used to be land dwellers. Here is how whales ended up becoming the biggest of them all.  Following is a transcript of the video.

Whales are the biggest animals of all time. Heavier than elephants, wooly mammoths, and even dinosaurs!

But they weren’t always the titans of the sea. Let’s rewind the clock around 50 million years. No, you won’t find any whales here. You have to go ashore. Meet Pakicetus. The very first whale.

Life on Earth spent millions of years clawing its way out of the oceans. But whales took all that effort and threw it out the window. From 50 to 40 million years ago they traded in their four legs for flippers. In fact, some whales today still have leftover bones of hind legs!

Once submerged, their weight under gravity no longer mattered so they could theoretically grow to enormous proportions. And they did. Today, a blue whale is 10 THOUSAND times more massive than the Pakicetus was.

But this transformation wasn’t as gradual as you might think. In fact, over the next 37 million years or so whales grew increasingly diverse but their size remained small. And were only 18 feet long. Making them easy prey for predators, like giant sharks.

It wasn’t until around 3 million years ago that an ice age tipped the scales in the whales’ favor. Ocean temperatures and currents shifted sparking concentrated swarms of plankton and plankton-seeking krill. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet for the baleen whales, who grew larger as a result. And the larger they became, the farther they could travel in search of more food to grow even more. You can probably see where this is going.

3 million years later, humpbacks, for example, have one of the longest migrations of any mammal on Earth, traveling over 5,000 miles each year. As a result, modern whales are the largest they’ve ever been in history.

Take the biggest of the bunch the blue whale. It weighs more than a Boeing 757. Has a belly button the size of a plate. And its network of blood vessels, if you laid them out in a line, could stretch from Pluto to the sun and back over two and a half times!

In fact, the largest blue whales are so huge that scientists think they may have hit a physical limit. When they open their wide mouths to feed they engulf enough water to fill a large living room. So it can take as long as 10 seconds to close them again.

Scientists estimate once a whale is 110 feet long it can’t close its mouth fast enough before prey escapes. So it’s possible we’re living amongst the largest animal that will ever exist. Lucky for us, they mostly just eat krill.

This was made in large part thanks to Nick Pyenson and the information in his new book, “Spying on Whales.”

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• A park worker who has a background in geology and paleontology noticed dinosaur footprints fossilized on a slab of rock on a hiking trail in Pennsylvania.
• The rock was purchased in 2011 from a nearby commercial quarry.
• There are at least 35 Park Service properties known to have fossil tracks of ancient vertebrates.
• Although these tracks are not unique or particularly rare, vandalism is still a problem in parks. 
• The tracks will remain at an undisclosed location.

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (AP) — The national park on the site where George Washington and the struggling Continental Army endured a tough winter during the American Revolution boasts a new feature that's a couple of hundred million years old — dozens of fossilized dinosaur footprints discovered on rocks used to pave a section of hiking trail.

The trace fossils, as they are known, are scattered along a winding trail at Valley Forge National Historical Park, on slabs purchased in 2011 from a nearby commercial quarry.

To the untrained eye, they appear as indistinguishable bumps in the sandstone rock, with the largest about 9 inches long. On a recent weekday, hikers, joggers and dog walkers used the trail, oblivious to the marks of prehistoric animals beneath their feet.

Those marks drew the attention of Tom Stack not long after he began working as a volunteer park ambassador at Valley Forge in 2017.

Stack, who has a background in geology and paleontology, recognized the approximately 210 million-year-old rocks known as argillite as being similar in age and type to fossil-bearing rocks used to construct a 1930s-era bridge on the Gettysburg battlefield, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) to the west.

Most of the tracks left in what were once muddy flats consist of three-toed foot impressions from the early days of dinosaurs, although Stack also found footprints from a non-dinosaur reptile, a relative of the modern crocodile. The largest would have been a bipedal theropod that was 6 (1.8 meters) to 9 feet (2.7 meters) long and 4 (1.2 meters) to 6 feet (1.8 meters) high.

"They're subtle, they're not easy to spot, but once you learn the characteristics of them, given the right sunlight angle and, at times, the moisture on the rock, then they are easier to identify," Stack said.

There are also distinctive patterns in the rock thought to be caused by the cracking of dried mud, and from the ripples of a lake or river.

The National Park Service requested the exact location of the rocks not be publicized, to help protect them from being damaged or removed. Officials said visitors will be told about the rocks and how park resources are protected, but not where to find them. The 5-square-mile (13 square kilometer) park has about 30 miles (48 kilometers) of trail.

The dinosaur footprints Stack found are not unique or even particularly rare, and don't add to the body of scientific knowledge about the creatures, said National Park Service paleontology program coordinator Vince Santucci. They date from later in the Triassic period and before the Jurassic era that's so familiar to moviegoers.

"There's no question that they are" dinosaur trace fossils, said Santucci, who examined them in person last April. "They're consistent with the tracks that occur in equivalent-age beds all over the East Coast."

More than 270 National Park Service properties contain some sort of paleontological resource, from Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado and Utah to the fossils scattered in rock used to build the Lincoln Memorial and Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.

Most fossils found on Park Service land are still where they were discovered, in the original bedrock location. But others were moved by human activity, including a set of burrows from an ancient species that appear on the rock facade of a visitor's center bathroom at Valley Forge. Those rocks originated outside the park.

There also happens to be a significant Ice Age fossil location beneath the Valley Forge park, the Port Kennedy bone cave. First discovered in 1871, it has produced fossils that include giant tapirs, ground sloths and saber-toothed cats. Pork Kennedy is considered one of the most important mammal fossil sites in North America, with some findings having been displayed at the park visitor center, although most are at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. That 750,000-year-old site was lost after a quarry was filled — partly with asbestos — before being rediscovered by scientists in 2005. It is not accessible to the public.

There are at least 35 Park Service properties known to have fossil tracks of ancient vertebrates, and vandalism and theft have been a problem. Federal law prohibits visitors from disturbing park elements.

A park spokesman said there have been preliminary discussions about developing an interpretive program to give visitors information about the trace fossils. Stack said the park should consider removing rocks that contain the best fossils, to prevent damage or theft.

"I would think they are of value as an educational tool," said Helen Delano, a senior scientist with the Pennsylvania Geologic Survey. "Dinosaurs are a wonderful way to hook people into paying attention to the geological environment. Every kid loves dinosaurs."

Stack said the rocks are abundant, cheap and durable, so they have long been used for paving, sidewalks, garden walls and similar features in the Philadelphia area.

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• Tyrannosaurus rex has captivated the public imagination since the "king of the dinosaurs" ate its way onto the scene in "Jurassic Park."
• But when Steven Spielberg's 1993 blockbuster was being made, paleontologists didn't really know much about T. rex — only seven or eight skeletons existed in the fossil record.
• Since then, a dozen more T. rex skeletons have been found, changing our understanding of these creatures.
• The American Museum of Natural History has created the most accurate depiction of what T. rex looked like in a new exhibit about the iconic dinosaur.

If your image of Tyrannosaurus rex is based on the ferocious creature in "Jurassic Park," you've gotten quite a few things wrong about the "king of the dinosaurs."

In recent years, paleontologists have been revising the scientific consensus about how T. rex looked, sounded, and ate.

"Everyone's preconceived ideas of what T. rex acted like and looked like are going to be heavily modified," Mark Norell, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, told Business Insider. The museum just opened an exhibit devoted to the dino, called "T. rex: The Ultimate Predator."

The exhibit showcases the latest research on the prehistoric animal. And as it turns out, these predators started their lives as fuzzy, turkey-sized hatchlings. They also had excellent vision, with forward-facing eyes like a hawk for superior depth perception. And T. rexes couldn't run — instead, they walked at impressive speeds of up to 25 mph.

Read More:Baby T. rexes were covered in peach fuzz and the size of small turkeys — here's what they looked like

But to be fair to Steven Spielberg, only seven or eight T. rex skeletons existed in the fossil record when his classic movie was produced in 1993. Since then, a dozen more skeletons have been discovered, and those bones have changed scientists' understanding of the creatures.

Here's what the T. rex was really like when it hunted 66 million years ago, according to the experts at the AMNH.

SEE ALSO: Scientists have discovered a new dinosaur that has arms like a T Rex

The first T. rex skeleton was discovered in 1902 by Barnum Brown, a paleontologist with the AMNH.

Today, the institution boasts one of the few original T. rex skeletons on display.

Tyrannosaurus rex — from the Greek words for "tyrant" and "lizard" and the Latin word for "king"— lived between 68 million and 66 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period (just before the asteroid impact that ended the era of the dinosaurs).

The T. rex rocked a mullet of feathers on its head and neck, and some on its tail too.

Feathers are rarely preserved in the fossil record, so they haven't been found on a T. rex specimen. But other dinosaur fossils, including other tyrannosaur species and their relatives, do have preserved feathers.

That means paleontologists can "safely assume" T. rex had feathers as well, Norell said.

Though adult T. rexes were mostly covered in scales, scientists think they had patches of feathers on attention-getting areas like the head and tail.

T. rex hatchlings looked more like fluffy turkeys than terrifying predators.

T. rex hatchlings were covered in peach fuzz, much like a duckling. As they aged, they lost most of their feathers, keeping just the ones on the head, neck, and tail.

Most hatchlings didn't survive past infancy. A baby T. rex had a more than 60% chance of succumbing to predators, disease, accidents, or starvation during its first year of life.

• An eBay listing for a young T. rex's 15-foot body and 21-inch skull is drawing attention.
• According to the Lawrence Journal-World, the T. rex belongs to Alan Detrich and had been on exhibit at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum.
• Detrich told the newspaper he and his brother discovered the bones in Montana in 2013.
• So far, no one has made an offer on the bones, although about 774 people are watching the auction.

If you've got an extra $2.95 million lying around (and who doesn't?), the remains of a baby Tyrannosaurus rex could be yours.

An eBay listing for a young T. rex's 15-foot body and 21-inch skull is drawing attention because, well, when was the last time you saw a dinosaur for sale online?

According to the Lawrence Journal-World, the T. rex belongs to Alan Detrich and had been on exhibit at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum. The university pulled the bones from display after the listing went up.

Detrich didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a tweet from April 10 said, "Today I will remove my 68 million year old 4 year old T-Rex Fossil that has been on display at the Museum for the past two years. .......Your Welcome."

In a statement posted on Twitter, the museum sought to clarify that it was not involved in the sale, saying "the specimen on exhibit-loan to us has been removed from exhibit and is being returned to the owner. We have asked that the owner remove any association with us from his sale."

So far, no one has made an offer on the bones, although about 774 folks are watching the auction as of this writing. eBay didn't immediately respond for a request for comment.

Read more:The real T. rex looked nothing like the monster in 'Jurassic Park.' These 13 discoveries have upended our picture of the 'king of the dinosaurs.'

Detrich told the newspaper he and his brother discovered the bones in Montana in 2013. According to his Twitter account, this isn't his first T. rex sale. Detrich tweeted that he sold another one he dubbed Samson for "millions of dollars."

In a letter dated April 12, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology expressed ethical concerns about the sale.

Read more:13 dinosaur myths scientists wish we'd stop believing

"Because vertebrate fossils are rare, most of them contribute uniquely to our knowledge of the history of life. Each one that is lost from the public trust, is part of that already fragmentary history that we will never collectively recover," the letter said.

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• According to the Washington Post, a young Tyrannosaurus Rex has been put up for sale on eBay by a "professional fossil hunter".
• The decision to put it up for sale has been slammed by a number of scientists, who stress that discoveries like this T. Rex are rare.
• Some have even gone as far as branding fossil hunters who sell their finds as "thieves of time".
• Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories.

Cancel the dig and put the fossil brush down – if you're looking for your own piece of paleontological history, it could be as easy as browsing on eBay.

According to the Washington Post, a young Tyrannosaurus Rex has been listed on the online auction platform by a "professional fossil hunter".

At roughly five meters high, the skeleton — which may be one of a kind — belongs to a dinosaur that was roughly four years old at the time it was alive, 68 million years ago.

Originally discovered by Robert Detrich, the skeleton was exhibited in 2017 by the Museum of Natural History by the University of Kansas.

Though his brother, Alan Dietrich, had previously tried to sell the Tyrannosaurus to a public institution, the pair ultimately decided to put it up for grabs on eBay.

Their asking price? $2.95 million.

The sellers have described the item as "most likely the only baby T. Rex in the world", with a 15-foot long body and 21-inch skull.  Their incentive to sell the item appears to be their desire to share their archaeological find with the world and securing financing.

In the US, if you discover a fossil on private property, you become the owner. While the brothers attempted to sell the remains to museums and educational institutions, they were unable to find a public buyer.

While the skeleton may seem like an exciting opportunity for anyone wealthy enough to afford it, the decision to put it up for sale has been slammed by a number of scientists, who stress that discoveries like this T. Rex are rare.

There's still a considerable amount we don't know about the dinosaurs, making every specimen invaluable in helping us understand them.

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Due to the hefty asking price, it's likely that researchers won't get the opportunity to study the creature's remains — once a specimen is purchased by a private owner, ensuring independent and ethical findings can become trickier.

"Absolutely every additional fossil is critical to get a picture of what a young T. Rex was like," said paleontologist at Carthage College in Wisconsin, Thomas Carr, speaking to the Washington Post.

"The fossil record is analogous to the memory of the Earth," he continued. "Fossils are the only information we have about how life on this planet evolved."

The expert even went as far as branding those fossil hunters who sell their finds as "thieves of time".

Though the debate surrounding fossilized dinosaurs is certainly nothing new, it's recently returned to the fore. It's more heated than ever, now that celebrities and the ultra-rich have started treating them like personal collectibles.

From Nicolas Cage to Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio, there's no shortage of high-profile names getting involved in dinosaur-dealing. Unfortunately, this pushes up the fossils' price tags, leaving public institutions like museums or researchers unable to compete with them.

Read more:Scientists found the 'missing link' in the theory on how planets are formed

Only last year, before scientists had even had the chance to glimpse it — let alone to study and identify it — an almost complete skeleton of what was possibly a new dinosaur was put up for auction in Paris. It sold for $2.36 million— to a private buyer.

While Carr has called out commercial fossil-floggers as time-thieves, and others have supported the notion that specimens are "lost to science" once they end up out of the public's hands, many fossil dealers refute that notion.

Michael Triebold, who has collected fossils commercially for over 30 years, told the Washington Post that museums often rely on private owners for exhibits, adding: "I dare suggest that a privately owned fossil of any scientific significance is cared for better than one in the public trust."

Detrich claims he's received interest from potential buyers across the globe but, as of yet, he hasn't yet had an offer.

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