Topic: Jurassic World aka Jurassic Park IV

[Corbomite]

I saw a study once that said a T-Rex could reach up to 40mph based on computer models of its structure.

[knightstorm]

I read that an adult was limited to a much slower speed, and it was dangerous for them to run at full speed because they were so top heavy that if they fell while running it could kill them.  Juveniles seem to have been significantly faster which lends credence to the theory that they were pack hunters with the juveniles scaring up the herds and driving them into the adult's jaws.

[knightstorm]

I tell yeah, Take a Grizzly and a T-rex and scale them to size, and it would be one hell of a fight to watch though. but then that takes us all back to the original premise that I see in this discussion, which would be, "How much suspension of belief , do we allow from film to film?"

anyways, just my 2 cents gentlemen.

Could be worse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGt9GtDwdKY

[Nemesis]

According to this site

Tyrannosaurus (13,230 pounds, 6,000 kg)—17.9 mph (8 m/s)

[TAnimaL]

Maybe to just put a bookend on this thread, I did see this on vacation with the family. To give a spoiler-free review:

"Eh."

It wasn't bad bad (as in Transformers or Armageddon)... and if your expectations are low you'll survive. It certainly wasn't great, but a lot of people I know have said they enjoyed it.  I'll give some credit where credit is due; the raptor training scenes are less ridiculous as the trailer makes them (based on my experiences with exotic animal handlers). Plus, along the lines with some of the comments in this thread, at one point a character fully acknowledges that these dinosaurs are NOT real dinosuars but guesses made in a lab, something that was more prominent in  Chrichton's book, IIRC.

Heard something funny right after it came out:
"A corporate executive, in an attempt to increase profits, creates a questionable mix of past successes in order to satisfy audiences, and when it escapes..."
        ..... is both a description of the plot, and of how the movie came to be.

[knightstorm]

It looked like there were some small nods to the original Walking With Dinosaurs documentary and early Primeval which I liked, but nothing could redeem the film from the idiocy of the I-Rex concept.

[Nemesis]

Dinosaurs did have some of the characteristics of birds in there lungs and lighter bones.  They seem to have been substantially lighter than mammals of comparable size as well.  T-Rex also spent a good part of its life a great deal smaller than the full adult, it seems to have under gone a 2 year growth spurt at the end of adolescence going from closer to the movie raptor size to the size we traditionally see in museums.

As to comparing them to mammals better than modern day comparisons compare them to the titanotheres before modern man showed on the scene. 

[Corbomite]

I recently saw an interesting documentary about how many of the species we think we know about are going to be realized as calf and adolescent dinosaurs of the adults we are sure about. They have found that many dinosaurs went through significant changes in features throughout their lives and many of the "species" we know about are not true species all.

As far as the bird thing goes - that might possibly be true of theropods and ornithopods, but I haven't seen anything concerning that and sauropods.

[Nemesis]

As far as the bird thing goes - that might possibly be true of theropods and ornithopods, but I haven't seen anything concerning that and sauropods.

Link  to full article

A large opening found in the ischium, which opens into a large air chamber, supports the theory that these dinosaurs had abdominal air sacs— strong evidence for an avian-like respiratory system.

As with birds, it appears the bones of Tataouinea were hollow, making it light weight for its estimated 14 metre long body.

[Corbomite]

Interesting. I'd missed that somehow. I'd only seen reports for two leggers so far. Well it would seem that dinosaurs didn't have avian respiratory systems; birds have saurian respiratory systems. It would also seem that hollow bones weren't originally designed to allow flight after the evolution of feathers, but that both were evolved for other purposes and became the flight worthy characteristics that we know today. This would help explain some of the sizes that are encountered as a more efficient respiratory system would be required for them. I wonder if this will force them to reclassify pterosaurs as actual dinosaurs now. Have you seen any reports of hollow bones in marine reptiles?

[Nemesis]

Have you seen any reports of hollow bones in marine reptiles?

Not yet.  Seems they don't even have the ancestors of the ichthyosaurs figured out.