this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] gibmiser 115 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] aeronmelon 112 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] FatTony 43 points 2 months ago

Stop that, stop that! Go on, clear off! Go on, go away! And you, clear off! Bloody weather.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

Bloody weather...

[–] unreachable 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] angrystego 10 points 2 months ago

Circles in the glass of water intensify.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 2 months ago (8 children)

I'd love to see an informed response as to why we think they ran instead of hopped. Is there a difference in the skeleton or muscles that would tell us?

[–] mineralfellow 134 points 2 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 62 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh God imagine we'd actually found huge parallel footprints.

[–] moistclump 42 points 2 months ago

Then we’d know Jesus was carrying the t-rex the whole time

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[–] Lemming6969 50 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Good point actually.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Kangaroos hop because they can store a lot of energy in there Achilles tendon and use that to propel them forward without using much energy. It's good for covering long distances over flat terrain while using as little energy as possible , which is good for the Australian outback as they hop between small patches of vegitation separated by miles of desert. It's not that good for ambushing or quickly chasing prey in a rainforest like the t rex is probably doing.

There's also the issue of scale, a t rex's Achilles tendon would have to be stronger then steel cable and as stretchy as rubber to store and re use that much kinetic force from its weight.

[–] InverseParallax 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Was gonna say, the tendon strength simply doesn't scale like that, rexes are way too massive.

Could see it for larger raptors though, except they're probably better off just running. Predators really need maximum bursts of speed and maneuverability, hopping doesn't give them that.

[–] CitizenKong 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The probably pounced on their prey though when they were sure they would catch them.

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[–] NegativeInf 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Probably something to do with strain on the body. Studies show T. rex couldn't even run. Maybe a fast walk. Additionally, the way the muscles attach to the bones probably don't support hopping.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The context of this comment is amazing.

Imagine a creature, that died over 65 million years ago (earth was at the other side of the galaxy back then) and yet we can detect how the muscles attached to the bone

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

earth was at the other side of the galaxy back then

Hoooly eff.

[–] Cypher 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Right now you’re orbiting the galactic core (well basically, its very close) at 240km/s +/- ~30km/s (Earths rotation of the Sun).

And it still took 65 million years to complete less than half an orbit of the galaxy.

[–] ChonkyOwlbear 33 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Skull weight alone would make hopping difficult. Their heads are huge.

[–] pyre 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

yep, the first thing I noticed was how tiny the kangaroo's head and upper body is compared to the legs. for the t-rex both the head and the upper body are much more massive compared to the leg's diameter.

[–] TotalFat 6 points 2 months ago

Maybe they tucked their huge heads and rolled around like rollerrats. Except huge.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Most likely the weight difference would be the biggest issue here.

Same reason why to scale bug wings wouldn't let you fly, that square cube law can lead to some very unfun conclusions where big beasties are concerned.

Or some absolutely terrifying ones in Shin Godzilla's case.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

SQUARE CUBE LAW MENTIONED

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I wonder if babies and adolescents hopped around? There's already the theory that T.rexs lived in family groups with adolescents catching lots of small prey and adults catching the occassional large prey and providing protection.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

hopping like a kangaroo is unlikely, but it would probably make sense for them to move like modern birds of the same size and whatever is the most similar ecological niche.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

first off AFAIK they don't even have anything near the amount of muscle in the right places to try hopping, but even if they did manage it i'm pretty sure their legs would snap in half when they landed and then as the rest of the body met the ground they'd crack ribs and stuff as well.

Imagine trying to jump around while wearing a dishwasher on your back, even if you're monstrously strong in every part of your body it's gonna fucking suuuuuuuuck

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Hip anatomy? Structured more like a bird hip rather than a reptile or kangaroo

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[–] TrickDacy 74 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I've seen a lot of little birds hop around. Not only are birds dinosaurs, but the particular birds I've seen hopping are very similar in shape to a T Rex.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago (2 children)

My chickens run around very similar to the run we see of T-Rex/raptors in movies. They lean forward and low and run surprisingly fast for an animal with wings that they just tuck.

[–] TrickDacy 5 points 2 months ago

Yeah, that seems more likely from what I know about dinosaurs. Just saying, we already have birds who hop to compare to. The kangaroo idea just strikes me as silly

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[–] hakunawazo 20 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Or like a pigeon with its head motion while walking.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Have you ever seen a real roadrunner?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Seen one? I've caught one.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

I heard it takes a super genius to do that.

[–] Anticorp 8 points 2 months ago

Seems unlikely. Which Acme products did you use?

[–] Anticorp 5 points 2 months ago

I’ve watched scrub jays running around on my lawn, eating bugs, looking exactly like little dinosaurs.

[–] FlyingSquid 37 points 2 months ago
[–] aeronmelon 34 points 2 months ago (3 children)

And what if they skipped daintily while holding giant lollipops?

[–] GraniteM 13 points 2 months ago

"Nurse said that if I were a good lad that I should receive a lolly!"

[–] FuglyDuck 11 points 2 months ago

I think I saw that anime.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 3 points 2 months ago

T Rex only known organism to lick its way to the center of a Tootsie pop

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago

The math maths

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Imagining a TRex with enormous bunny-shaped ears

[–] darki 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Does the penguin fly? Mass/per/volume is a thing...

[–] geogle 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Mass per volume is density, and I suspect the Trex and kangaroo are similar (~1000 kg/m^3) so yes they'd both bounce in that case. I think what you're looking for is surface area to volume, which decreases rapidly as an object gets larger while maintaining geometry.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

It's worth noting that most extinct dinosaurs were probably more similar to surviving ones (i.e., birds) than to mammals and reptiles when it comes to bones and respiratory systems, and, by extension, density.

That is to say, they probably could get that big because they were quite literally full of air.
Some of them (especially sauropods, but maybe also other big species like tyrannosaurs) probably had even more complex and efficient air sac systems than modern birds...

[–] ace_garp 4 points 2 months ago

+1 Terrifying

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

They absolutely did.

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