Dinosaur speed demon not for turning

From IrishTimes.com: Dinosaur speed demon not for turning

A SPEEDY, seven-metre-long, meat-eating dinosaur that stalked South America in its heydey appears to have had an enormously strong tail that boosted its speed, according to a new study.

Carnotaurus had a huge tail muscle that made it one of the fastest hunters of its time, according to researcher Scott Persons, a graduate student in palaeontology at the University of Alberta in Canada.

The paper, published in PLoS One , dubs Carnotaurus sastrei a “dinosaur speed demon” and details findings from computer modelling which suggest that long rib-like bones, along the length of the dinosaur’s tail, could have supported a huge muscle.

While the muscular tail may have meant Carnotaurus couldn’t turn too deftly, it may have boosted the twin-horned dinosaur’s ability to cover ground.

“The results of the digital muscle reconstruction suggest that what C. sastrei lacked in turning ability, it may have made up for in overall speed and acceleration,” write the study authors.

But perhaps that straight trajectory gave the dinosaur’s would-be prey a get-out-of-jail card, surmised Persons in a statement. “The tail was rigid, making it difficult for the hunter to make quick, fluid turns,” he says.

“Imagine yourself as a small plant-eating dinosaur on the floodplains of prehistoric Argentina, and you are unlucky enough to find yourself being charged by a hungry Carnotaurus . Your best bet is to make a lot of quick turns, because you couldn’t beat Carnotaurus in a straight sprint.”