Carnotaurus Topped 50 Km/H, Fastest of All Land Dinos

That's 10 km/h faster than Usain Bolt, and also a lot bigger, meaner, and generally more dinosaur-y.

Last week we learned that the Tyrannosaurus rex was a lot bigger and hungrier than previously thought, and now comes the discovery that its smaller cousin, the Carnotaurus, was probably the fastest dinosaur on Earth, likely being able to run upwards of 50 kilometres an hour. Scott Persons, a biology PhD student at the University Alberta, examined the tail lengths and widths to determine how powerful each dinosaur's caudofermoralis, or tail muscle, would have been. The tail muscle was attached to the dinos' hind legs, and the bigger the muscle was relative to the rest of the dinosaur, the faster that dinosaur would have run, argues Persons. And the tail muscle of the Carnotaurus, a fearsome predator that has a starring role on the new Fox program Terra Nova, is believed to be the most powerful of them all. Persons figures the Carnotaurus could have topped out at 56 km/h, but only in a straight line, as the tail muscle prevented swift lateral movement. That's faster than a charging rhinoceros, by comparison, and also a heck of a lot more deadly. So say what you will about Fox's dedication to details but at least when it comes to prehistoric killing machines, they get their facts right.

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