• If the dragons in 'Game of Thrones' — like Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion — wanted to fly in real life, they'd need much more muscle to push their tremendous weight off the ground.
• However, extra muscle means extra weight, which creates a dilemma considering the mechanics of flight.
• These fantasy dragons of Westeros would need a build similar to the prehistoric flying reptiles, called giant pterosaurs. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. 

Following is a transcript of the video.

Let's face it. When it comes to "Game of Thrones," we're all here for the dragons— Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion. After all, flying on dragonback is every fantasy nerd's dream! Now, we know dragons are just that — fantasy. But if these colossal creatures did exist in our world, could they really get off the ground?

If you looked toward the sky around 70 million years ago, you might have thought you saw a dragon. Back then, enormous flying reptiles called giant pterosaurs ruled the skies. Their wingspan was nearly as long as a telephone pole. And at least one species, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, stood as tall asagiraffe — and weighed 300 kilograms! That's 15 times the size of the heaviest flying bird today, the kori bustard.

Giant pterosaurs may be the closest real animals to the dragons of Westeros. So if they could fly, surely Dany's dragons could too, right? Well… not exactly. Let's consider the mechanics of flight. The hardest part of flying is taking off. And for most animals, that requires speed. Because the faster you go, the more lift you generate, which literally pulls you into the sky.

Most animals — including Quetzalcoatlus — gain speed to take off by jumping into the air. And the heavier you are, the more power you'll need in your jump. Now, Quetzalcoatlus got that power using its back legs and wings. They doubled as front legs, so it could push off the ground on all fours. And Dany's dragons actually use this same approach. So you'd think they'd have no problem taking off.  

But there's one KEY difference: Dragons are thousands of times heavier than even the heftiest pterosaurs. So even with a four-legged launch, Drogon's thighs would have to be way more jacked than they appear here ... to push his weight off the ground.

Maybe flapping his wings really hard could help? Mmmmmm probably not. Drogon's wings are actually small relative to the rest of his own body. In fact, his wings would need to be about twice their current size to work. And if they were, they would be much too heavy to move, let alone flap. Unless he had iron biceps to match those thighs.

But that would lead to yet another problem. The powerful muscles needed for takeoff would put an equally powerful force on the bones that support them. So unless they were thicker, they'd likely break. But here's the thing: Thick bones also weigh a lot more.

So these dragons would either have bones that are too heavy for takeoff or bones that are too fragile to fly. Either way, they're not going anywhere. That being said, all is not lost for our fire-breathing friends. We've assumed they're made of the same stuff as other animals.

But what if their muscles and bones were made of something else? Some special, extra-strong material. Perhaps, a metal that already exists in Westeros: Valyrian steel. It makes perfect sense! After all, who comes from Valyria? That's right. Dragons. AndtheirTargaryen riders. So all in all, could dragons fly in real life? Maybe not on Earth. But in Westeros, with the help of some magic metal? The sky's the limit.

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• Paleontologists have discovered a cousin of the T. rex that could shed more light on the origins of the Cretaceous' mightiest predator.
• The fossils, which were found in New Mexico, belong to a previously undiscovered tyrannosaur species that lived 92 million years ago. 
• The species, named Suskityrannus hazelae, stood just 3 feet tall. Its entire body was just a little bigger than the skull of a T. rex.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Two tiny tyrannosauroid skeletons have just filled in the fossil record, elucidating the humble origins of the Cretaceous' mightiest predator, Tyrannosaurus rex.

Dating back to around 92 million years ago, the two tyrannosaurs hail from the Zuni Basin in New Mexico. They stood just 1 meter (3 feet) tall and have been named Suskityrannus hazelae.

"This taxon, S. hazelae [..], is a small-bodied species phylogenetically intermediate between the oldest, smallest tyrannosauroids and the gigantic, last-surviving tyrannosaurids," the researchers wrote in their paper.

Read more:Someone is selling the remains of a baby T.rex on eBay, and paleontologists are not happy about it

The large tyrannosaurs appeared on the scene in the Late Cretaceous, about 81 million years ago. Prior to that, there had been some medium-sized tyrannosaurids up to about 150 million years ago, but the fossil record was shockingly sparse for the 70 million years in between.

Paleontologists think this is the result of high sea levels that flooded the continents, eroding sediment and decreasing the potential for bones to be preserved.

Whatever the reason, it's been a spanner in the works for uncovering the evolutionary history of the mighty T. rex. But now some tyrannosaurid bones from those dark ages are starting to be uncovered — confirming that the great hunters could have emerged from smaller ancestors.

A 'missing link' tyrannosaur called Timurlengia euotica from 90 million years ago was recently found in Uzbekistan. It was about the size of a horse.

Another, dating back 96 million years ago, was just described in a paper earlier this year. Moros intrepidus was a little smaller than a kangaroo, and ran around what is now Utah.

Including S. hazelae, these three species are all from the Middle Cretaceous, which makes them unlikely to be direct ancestors of T. rex. Instead, paleontologists believe all these animals diverged from a common ancestor sometime in the Early Cretaceous, which ended roughly 100 million years ago.

The S. hazelae skeletons recovered show a tyrannosauroid that was about coyote-sized (hence the name — suski is the Zuni word for coyote), weighing no more than between 20 and 40 kilograms (44 to 88 pounds). Its skull was between 25 and 32 centimeters in length (10 to 12.5 inches), and its entire body was just a little bigger than the mere skull of a T. rex.

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.'

Both skeletons were juveniles, so it's possible they would have grown a little bigger, but probably not by much — the paleontologists believe these pipsqueaks were already teenagers.

S. hazelae certainly wouldn't have reached the 5,000 to 7,000 kilogram (11,000 to 15,500 pound) weight class of T. rex, whose rapid gain in size remains to be something of a mystery.

But despite its small size, the tiny tyrannosaur was no slouch. Its jaw indicates that it would have had a very strong bite, like the later tyrannosaurs; other features show it was fleet of foot, like the earlier ones. S. hazelae, somewhere in the middle, could hold its own.

And it has big significance, too. By filling in the fossil record, it could help paleontologists figure out why tyrannosaurids changed so dramatically, and so fast.

"It is unclear why these animals were drastically changing so many aspects of their anatomy and biology during the mid-Cretaceous. This may have been related to some of the environmental changes occurring during this time, although the sparse fossil record makes this difficult to test," the researchers wrote in their paper.

"Alternatively, these developments may have been adaptations for hunting at medium size, in ecosystems where late-surviving allosauroids remained incumbent in the top predator niche earlier in the Cretaceous."

The research has been published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

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• Colorful fossils discovered in Australia were found to belong to a stunning new species of dinosaur, according to a new report published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 
• The fossils were discovered in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, a hotbed for dinosaur discovery in recent months. 
• The new dinosaur, Fostoria dhimbangunmal, is part of a clade of plant-eating dinosaur called an Iguanodontia that was likely around during the mid-Cretaceous period, around one hundred million years ago.
• Researchers discovered that the bones corresponded to four different sized animals believed to be the first dinosaur herd discovered in Australia. 

Colorful fossils discovered in Australia were found to belong to a stunning new species of dinosaur, according to a new report published in theJournal of Vertebrate Paleontology

The fossils were discovered in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, a small outback town famous for its opal mines near the state's northern border with Queensland.

The new dinosaur,  Fostoria dhimbangunmal, is part of a clade of plant-eating dinosaur called an Iguanodontia that was likely around during the mid-Cretaceous period, around one hundred million years ago.

It was named in honor of Robert Foster, the opal miner who discovered the fossils in the 1980s, and the sheepyard where the bones were found.

The bones were preserved entirely in opal and are a rare grey hue that features brilliant flecks of gem colors. Scientists from the Australian Museum in Sydney originally helped excavate the fossils but they were further studied once they were donated to the Australian Opal Center in 2015.

Dr Phil Bell, a lead researcher from the University of New England in Armidale who co-authored the report, said while researchers initially assumed the bones belonged to a single skeleton, they soon discovered that the bones corresponded to four different sized animals, believed to be first dinosaur herd discovered in Australia.

"There are about 60 opalized bones from one adult dinosaur, including part of the brain case, and bones from at least another three animals," Bell said in an interview with the university.

According to the University of New England, the bones were from both juvenile and adult animals that could have been up to 16 feet in length.

Lightning Ridge has been a hotbed for discovery in recent months after a dog-sized dinosaur was discovered in the region last year, named Weewarrasaurus pobeni by Bell and his colleagues. 

"The rate of discovery is astounding," Bell told the university. "On average, there's at least one new dinosaur discovered around the world every week," Dr Bell said. "With more paleontologists and scientists looking further afield than ever before, it's an exciting time for dinosaur lovers everywhere, especially in Australia."

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NOW WATCH: The reason humans have sharp front teeth isn't for tearing meat

• A digital globe on the Ancient Earth now makes it possible to see where your hometown would have been 750 million years ago.
• Scientist Ian Webster was the brains behind the digital globe — the map shows where and when you would have lived at various points in Earth's history.
• We searched where New York City would have been at different stages throughout history — it shows just how much change the face of Earth has experienced over hundreds of millions of years.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old — which makes 750 million years seem like nothing in relation to its age — but a lot of can change in the space of 750 million years.

300 million years ago the world consisted of just one single continent: Pangaea — 200 to 150 million years ago it started to split into two parts: Laurasia and Gondwana.

Read more:NASA has discovered that meteoroids are causing water to leak off the moon

With time and a very slow shifting of our tectonic plates, our planet morphed into what it is today.

A digital globe rendering of the Ancient Earth now makes it possible to see where your hometown would have been 750 million years ago — 150 million years before the first multi-cellular life forms developed.

Using data from a software platform called G-Plates, scientist Ian Webster created a digital globe where you can see where and when you would have lived at various points in Earth's history.

Read more:Scientists discovered a new type of 'giant' dinosaur – and it could explain how they became so huge

The map consists of 91 paleogeographic maps spanning the Phanerozoic and late Neoproterozoic periods, illustrating the ancient configuration of the ocean basins and continents, as well as important features including mountains, shallow sea, and deep oceans.

We searched where New York City would have been at different stages throughout history — the pale pink marker shows where New York City would have been.

Around 400 million years ago, the first vertebrates began walking on land. The Earth's landscape looked very different to how it does now.

When the first dinosaurs began roaming Earth 220 million years ago, New York City was far closer to Morocco than it is today.

While the continents of North America and South America may look a lot more familiar than the previous landscapes, hominids were only just starting to appear at this stage.

Researchers have suggested that the Earth's plates will eventually meld into a "supercontinent" in roughly 300 million years, which they've dubbed Amasia.

SEE ALSO: NASA released a stunning photo showing two galaxies colliding

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• Some pictures are worth 1,000 words ... or maybe just a 500-word blog post.
• Such is the case for Christina Meador, who showed to her sister Deanna Adam's wedding wearing, of all things, a dinosaur costume.
• But not to worry, Deanna was in on the joke, her new husband Joby told Insider.
• Meador first came up with the idea about a year when Deanna told her that she could wear "anything" she wanted to her wedding.
• Unfortunately it was hot on the day of the wedding and Meador eventually changed into a dress.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

When wedding season rolls around, some couples take formal dress codes pretty seriously on their big day. But that wasn't the case for Deanna and Joby Adams of Omaha, Nebraska.

When she got engaged last year, Deanna, a legal administrative specialist, asked her younger sister, Christina, to be her maid of honor.

She also told her younger sibling that she could wear "anything" she wanted to the wedding. As younger sisters tend to do, Meador pushed the limits of "anything." In a screenshot of their conversation recently shared to Facebook, Meador asked Deanna if she could wear a dinosaur suit to the wedding. Deanna said yes.

Read more:A 'Scooter Girl' photobombed a wedding party's photos, and the internet can't get enough of her sassy entrance

Joby, a 34-year-old US Army sergeant, told Insider that the following year was a "big game of chicken" to see if either sister would back down on their dinosaur-costume-related claims.

And then came August 10, the day of the wedding. Joby described it as a "typical wedding day," the small ceremony held in their backyard to a crowd of between of about 50 to 60 people.

"The music starts playing and then out comes Christina in the dino suit," he said.

The crowd went wild — laughing, smiling, cheering, Joby said. The outfit has been massively popular online, too. The story took off after Medaor posted a photo to Facebook and gave an interview to the Daily Mail. Meador declined to be interviewed for this story. 

And while the guests were surprised, the whole wedding party was in on Meador's plan — including the bride and groom.

"A lot of people are saying that it takes attention away from the bride and the groom, but we didn't mind at all," Joby said. "We loved it."

Joby explained that Meador "almost chickened out" before the wedding, but her sister encouraged her to wear the costume.

And after the pictures were snapped and the "I do's" were exchanged, it was time for the reception — and an outfit change for Meador. Joby said that it was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit and humid in Nebraska that day. Perhaps it was the wrong day for a dino suit after all.

• Read more:
• A viral video shows the owner of an event hall in Mississippi declining to host an interracial wedding because of her 'Christian belief'
• A woman looked for a wedding date on Craigslist to show up an ex-boyfriend, and now she and her date are married
• Couples are hiring this wedding photographer to capture the gritty, real, and unglamorous side of their special day
• People can't stop buying this summer wedding guest dress that costs less than $30 on Amazon

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NOW WATCH: A Thai street stall sells fried doughnuts shaped like dinosaurs

• Researchers in Canada diagnosed a dinosaur with an aggressive type of bone cancer — the first time a dinosaur has received a confirmed cancer diagnosis. 
• The dinosaur died "surrounded by its friends," the scientists said, a finding that may offer insight into dinosaur social structures.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

David Evans and Mark Crowther figured they had a good chance of finding a dinosaur with cancer. 

Evans, a paleontologist at the Royal Ontario Museum, and Crowther, a hematologist at McMaster University, knew that birds — dinosaurs' closest living relatives — get cancer. And other organisms living around the dinosaur era have shown signs of the disease, too. Researchers have even found tumors in a duck-billed dinosaur, though they didn't confirm a cancer diagnosis. 

"Diagnosis of aggressive cancer like this in dinosaurs has been elusive and requires medical expertise and multiple levels of analysis to properly identify," Crowther said in a press release.

The pair searched the massive collection of bones held by the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Alberta, Canada. They saw various dinosaur bones with arthritis, fractures, and even tennis elbow. But only one bone had the characteristics they sought: Its top half had an apple-sized lump, with odd growth extending from the knee to the ankle. 

Their findings about that bone, published this week in the journal Lancet Oncology, offer the first confirmed case of malignant cancer in a dinosaur. The results underscore biological links between ancient and modern animals that could help scientists learn more how diseases like cancer have evolved.  

How the researchers arrived at a cancer diagnosis

The bone Evans and Crowther analyzed is a fibula, or calf bone, of a Centrosaurus apertus: a Triceratops look-alike that lived 75 to 77 million years ago. 

To confirm that the dinosaur had cancer, a team of researchers from an array of fields — including pathology, radiology, orthopaedic surgery, and paleopathology — x-rayed the bone and studied its cellular structure under a microscope.

They also compared the bone to a normal calf bone from the same type of dinosaur, as well as to the amputated calf bone of a 19-year-old human man who'd suffered from the same cancer they suspected the dinosaur had. 

At the end of that two-year process, the results showed that the bone was indeed cancerous: The dinosaur was suffering from an aggressive form of osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer usually diagnosed in young people. The dinosaur's tumor was so large and aggressive that it probably broke the creature's leg, Evans said — the bone they diagnosed was missing part of its top. 

"A similarly advanced osteosarcoma in a human patient, left untreated, would certainly be fatal," the researchers wrote.

But in this dinosaur's case, they don't think cancer was its cause of death. The bone was found among thousands of others in a "bone bed" in Canada, part of a herd of Centrosaurus apertus that likely died in a flood. Given that it would have been easy for the sick dinosaur to fall prey to another dinosaur or get left behind, unable to keep up with its herd, Evans think it's possible that other dinosaurs were taking care of it.

"It gives us unique insight into the lives of other dinosaurs," he said, adding, "it's sad to think this dinosaur had cancer, but at least it didn't kill him — at least he died surrounded by his friends."

SEE ALSO: A NASA scientist's incredible animation shows how dinosaurs roamed the Earth on the other side of the Milky Way galaxy

DON'T MISS: 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.'

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NOW WATCH: How dinosaurs took over the world

Have you ever wondered what the area around your hometown was like during the Cretaceous period, when the Tyrannosaurus rex roamed? How about before then, when Earth had just one supercontinent?

Now you can find out.  

An interactive map developed by software engineer Ian Webster lets users track the locations of modern-day landmarks back hundreds of millions of years.

If you type in the name of your hometown or current city, the map can pinpoint its location on the planet in a given era, going back 750 million years (that's about 150 million years before multicellular life emerged). 

New York City, for example, formed part of the Rodinia supercontinent 750 million years ago. 

Webster's map relies on the work of geologist and paleogeographer Christopher Scotese, who created his own chronological map in 1998 that charts how tectonic plates shifted throughout Earth's history. 

The planet's continents are constantly moving because of these 15 to 20 plates, which in turn lie on Earth's mantle, the layer above the core. Heat from within the core causes these plates to move, sometimes towards each other and sometimes away. As a result, the continents of today look very different than they did a few hundred million years ago.

Webster told Business Insider that he got the idea to build the interactive map while studying tectonic plates. 

"The science was fascinating, but you had to install special scientific software to explore the results," he said. So he decided to make that data more accessible. 

Not all places on our current-day planet show up far into the past in Webster's map, since the geological formations on which they rest may not have developed or emerged yet. For instance, Seattle, Washington, partially rests on the modern-day Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, which originated from formations that emerged around 250 million years ago. Thus, it only becomes trackable starting around the 240-million-year mark. At that point, Seattle was part of Pangaea. (It's the red dot in the image below.)

New York City, on the other hand, was located in the middle of Rodinia 750 million years ago:

Then 470 million years ago, near the end of the Early Ordovician Period, New York's land was in an ocean.

The map doesn't provide many granular details about specific places during a given period of history, but it does offer snapshots of life on Earth over time. For instance, the first dinosaurs emerged about 220 million years ago, as Earth recovered from a mass extinction event. 

The map also includes a partial list of fossils found near a given town or city. Around New York, for example, paleontologists have found fossils of the pteranodon, a flying, kite-like reptile with a wingspan of 20 feet. 

Meanwhile, near Green River, Wyoming, remnants of Triceratops have been discovered. 

Webster told Business Insider that he wants teachers, students, and anyone interested in the history and science of Earth to use his map.

"I hope that it will inspire curiosity about our planet's past and ongoing natural processes," he said. 

SEE ALSO: Astrophysicists published the largest 3D map of the universe ever made, filling in 11 billion years of history

SEE ALSO: A NASA scientist's incredible animation shows how dinosaurs roamed the Earth on the other side of the Milky Way galaxy

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NOW WATCH: What living on Earth would be like without the moon

It turns out a massive flood control project is an excellent way to unearth dinosaurs. At least, that's what happened back in 1993 in Coralville, Iowa.

In 1993, Coralville, Iowa, experienced 28 days of rain. More than 17,000 cubic feet of water flowed over a spillway, wiping out the state's yearly crop of soybeans and corn. Roads were obliterated, people's lives were in jeopardy, and the city was literally drowning.

The Coralville Dam was built in the 1950s by the US Army Corps of Engineers to help provide flood protection for the Iowa River Valley to the south. It was named after the city, which had weirdly received its name from the ancient fossilized reefs that stud the river's limestone.

Once the rains stopped and the citizens of the city could step outside without being swept away, the Corps returned to the site to assess the damage and explore the choices for reconstructing the dam. What they discovered shocked everyone.

The Corps discovered that the floods eroded five feet of limestone from the edge of the spillway. This created a gorge and unearthed several fossil beds, most of which were about 375 million years old.

The fossils were mainly marine creatures that had once lived in the sea that used to cover Iowa. Because the Corps discovered them, all the sea creatures immediately became the property of the US Army.

That's not to say that the Army will be opening a theme park filled with these fossils any time soon, but it's pretty exciting to think that the Army has done its part to help advance the field of paleontology.

The survey archaeologist for the Corps, Nancy Brighton, said that the collection spans the entire paleontological record. So anything relating to animals and the natural world that existed before humans are included in that.

Because the Corps of Engineers manages more than 8 million acres of land across the United States, finds like the one in Iowa aren't super uncommon. In fact, the Corps also owns one of the most intact T. rex skeletons ever found. More on that later.

All thanks in part to the Flood Control Act, signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 that decreed the need for dams, levees, and dikes all across the country. But before construction could begin on those early-iteration dams, the Corps had to complete a thorough survey. Those surveys almost always exposed ancient fossil beds.

In fact, it's assumed that most of what American archaeologists have discovered are thanks in part to the efforts of the Corps. All of the hydropower and flood control projects that started back in the 1950s certainly paved the way for new discoveries.

The greatest of all of these discoveries didn't happen way back, though. It was just a few decades ago, in 1988, on Labor Day. That morning, Kathy Wankel, a hiker, and amateur fossil collector, was trekking through Montana's Fort Peck Reservoir when something caught her eye.

At first, she thought it was a shoulder blade pushing up through the rocky soil. The lighting was perfect, according to Wankel, which allowed her to see the webby pattern of bone marrow, and that's when she knew she'd discovered something big.

And by big, of course, we mean enormous. Wankel and her husband had stumbled on the remains of a T. rex thought to have roamed the Montana area some 66 million years ago. The discovery that Wankel and her husband made was one of just eight at the time. Since then, about 50 other skeletons have been discovered.

It took nearly a year to figure out who owned the land where the skeleton was found. At long last, the Corps began to dig. It took several years and a large team to unearth the 38-foot skeleton weighing in at nearly six tons.

The most astonishing part? It was almost 100% complete, making it the first specimen to be discovered with small lower arm bones fully intact.

Since 2017, the T. rex has called the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History home. The Corps of Engineers has agreed to a 50-year loan to ensure that all Americans have a chance to see it — when the world's not locked down with COVID, at least.

SEE ALSO: Why even the most advanced fighter jets still carry guns

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NOW WATCH: The biggest dinosaurs of all time

For all the awe Tyrannosaurus rex inspires, the "king of the dinosaurs" wasn't very speedy.  

Paleontologists already knew this predator was slow: It could only reach a maximum speed between 10 and 25 miles per hour. A 2017 study suggests that if a T. rex went any faster than 12 mph, the predator's bones would have shattered— so it walked quickly to pursue its prey when needed. 

But according to a study published Wednesday, T. rexes didn't like walking fast if they could help it. 

The researchers calculated that the dinosaur's preferred walking speed was a 3-mph stroll.

That's just under the average preferred walking speed for a human. So you could probably out-walk a T. rex, or at least keep up with one during its evening jaunt. 

"Humans and T. rex would not, if the study is right, have had very different walking speeds," John Hutchinson, an evolutionary biomechanics expert at the Royal Veterinary College in London who was not involved in the research, told Insider.

T. rexes preferred walking at the same speed that elephants do

An animal's preferred walking speed enables it to move about using the least amount of energy possible, according to Pasha van Bijlert, the new study's co-author.

While it may seem like the slower you walk, the less energy you use, that's not necessarily the case. The best way to achieve maximum energetic efficiency is by finding a locomotion sweet spot known as resonance. 

Imagine you're swinging on a swing, trying to get it moving by swaying your legs back and forth. If you sway too quickly or too slowly, nothing happens. But undulating at just the right rhythm gets your body parts to resonate, and swing most efficiently.

A similar resonance happens when you're walking at your preferred speed and your body finds a natural step rhythm.

"Many animals have a roughly similar preferred walking speeds: ostriches, elephants, giraffes, horses, gnus, and gazelles are the animals we've found data for, and they're all not that fast when they don't have to be," van Bijlert told Insider. These animals prefer to walk between 2.2 and 3.1 mph, just like T. rex — and just like us. 

That means the iconic scene from the 1993 film "Jurassic Park," in which a T. rex chases a group of park visitors driving away, isn't very accurate.

"I don't think anybody believes a T. rex could outrun a Jeep, but it sure does make for a good movie," van Bijlert said.

T. rex's tail helped it walk efficiently

Researchers previously calculated T. rex's walking speed by looking at fossilized footprints, then using the distance between those tracks to estimate the length of the dinosaur's stride. Those earlier estimates suggested T. rex could walk as fast as 6.7 mph.

But instead of focusing on what T. rex's legs were doing, van Bijlert's group looked at the predator's tail. A T. rex's tail bobs up and down as it walks.

According to the study authors, every time T. rex's tail sways up, ligaments inside the tail pull its legs backward, and store energy that then gets released when the tail swings back down. That energy propels the dinosaur forward.

The pace of that tail sway indicates T. rex's natural step rhythm.

To figure how fast a T. rex tail would move, van Bijlert's team created a 3D-model of an adult T. rex skeleton named Trix from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands. The team reconstructed where all of Trix's muscles and ligaments would start and end between her tail and legs, and used that model to help calculate her preferred walking speed: 2.9 mph.

Hutchinson said there's some uncertainty around that result, however, because van Bijlert's group didn't take into account whether Trix's tail would also be swinging side-to-side, and whether the muscles driving that motion might impact her top walking speed. 

The new study doesn't offer further insights into T. rex's maximum speed, he added.

"There's a big difference between a casual stroll in no rush versus a sprint," Hutchinson said.

It would take an adult T. rex more than 13 hours of walking to patrol its territory

T. Rex's preferred walking speed could tell us how long it took for the dinosaur to forage or scout an area, according to van Bijlert.

A new study from paleontologists the University of California, Berkeley suggested a single adult T. rex lived in an area roughly 40 square miles in size. So if a T. Rex went on a stroll to survey every part of its territory, the endeavor could take more than 13 hours. 

T. rex was still a deadly predator, though, when moving at maximum speed.

A fully-grown T. rex was one of the largest carnivorous land animals that ever walked the Earth, standing about 12 to 13 feet tall at the hip and measuring up to 43 feet from tooth to tail. An adult T. rex could weigh between 5.5 and 9 tons — about the size of an adult African elephant.

T. rexes also had a keen sense of smell, acute vision, and excellent hearing, making it hard for prey to avoid detection. On top of that, their jaws had a bite force of 7,800 pounds, equivalent to the crushing weight of about three Mini Cooper cars. No other known animal could bite with such force.

"All evidence suggests it would have no issues capturing similar-sized prey," Hutchinson said. 

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NOW WATCH: The T. Rex couldn’t actually sprint like it does in ‘Jurassic Park’ — but it was still a deadly creature

• 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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