THE FASTEST DINOSAUR According to computer models that were used to estimate the running speeds of dinosaurs, the Tyrannosaurus Rex would have been able to outrun a footballer. The study shows that the dinosaur could reach a top (24) ________ of 8 metres a second, which is fractionally faster than the average professional footballer. There has been a lot of controversy (25) ________ whether the Tyrannosaurus Rex was a predator or a scavenger; some believe that its highly developed sense of smell ...

THE FASTEST DINOSAUR

According to computer models that were used to estimate the running speeds of dinosaurs, the Tyrannosaurus Rex would have been able to outrun a footballer. The study shows that the dinosaur could reach a top (24) ________ of 8 metres a second, which is fractionally faster than the average professional footballer. There has been a lot of controversy (25) ________ whether the Tyrannosaurus Rex was a predator or a scavenger; some believe that its highly developed sense of smell indicates that it was a scavenger, while others say that its keen eyesight shows that it was a hunter. The (26) ________ group will appreciate the recent study, as a hunter is more likely to require such speed.

The University of Manchester study used a powerful supercomputer to calculate the running speeds of five meat-eating dinosaurs and used data taken directly from dinosaur fossils, rather than referring to previous work on modern animals. The Tyrannosaurus Rex, however, was not the fastest dinosaur. A small dinosaur (27) ________ Compsognathus, which was about the size of a chicken, could run at 18 metres a second, which is faster than the ostrich, the fastest two-legged animal today. It could run 100 metres in a little over six seconds, which would beat modern Olympic (28) ________ more than a third of the track behind.