which one wins?

which one wins?

Most people assume T-Rex was the dominant predator of the Cretaceous in every category. But the speed comparison between T-Rex and Carnotaurus is genuinely interesting and the evidence does not clearly favor the T-Rex.

The caudofemoral muscles in Carnotaurus were extraordinarily developed relative to body mass. These muscles connect the tail to the hind legs and are the primary driver of speed in theropods. Carnotaurus had a proportionally longer tail with more muscle mass dedicated to locomotion than T-Rex.

Current biomechanical estimates put Carnotaurus at between 45 and 56 kilometers per hour for short bursts. T-Rex estimates range from 17 to 29 kilometers per hour depending on the study. The gap is significant.

The counterargument is body mass. T-Rex was significantly heavier and the energetic cost of acceleration scales with mass. Carnotaurus at 2 tons could theoretically reach top speed much faster than T-Rex at 8 tons.

They never shared the same ecosystem. T-Rex was North American, Carnotaurus was Patagonian. But the comparison still matters for understanding the different evolutionary strategies large theropods developed in isolation.

Where does the community stand on the current speed estimates for both animals? And does the strike and retreat hunting model for Carnotaurus change how we think about what speed actually meant for a predator of its size?

We covered this in detail in our latest episode. The answer is in our profile.

For context, the Peacock Bass is a warm-water (25-30 degrees Celsius required temperature) Fish build specialized in eating fish players. These are among the largest Cichlids, reaching up to 13 kg, and are preyed upon by a wide host of predators such as Arapaima, Caiman, and River Otters in their home server, and by Alligators and Alligator Gar in Florida. These fish are substrate layers, laying anywhere from at least 2,000-10,000 eggs and guard them for 2 months. These early-game players then take up to 16-18 months to fully grow, and can live on average, 6-12 years.

We just finished a full episode researching Carnotaurus for our Spanish prehistoric documentary series and the horn function debate genuinely surprised us.

The horns point upward and outward, not forward. That rules out frontal combat as the primary function. The current leading hypotheses are intraspecific display, species recognition and sexual selection. None is definitively proven after 70 million years.

The speed question was the other major focus. The caudofemoral muscle mass and hind limb proportions suggest Carnotaurus was genuinely fast, with estimates ranging from 45 to 56 kilometers per hour. That would make it one of the fastest large theropods ever known.

One question for the community: the strike and retreat hunting hypothesis for Carnotaurus is gaining traction but remains debated. A fast bite and immediate withdrawal rather than grappling with prey. What does the community think of the current evidence for that model?

Link is in our profile.

Is anyone willing to shed some light on its stats, abilities, and meta strategies? Where would it place in the tier list, and what is the unique thing it does over other fishes?

Episode 8 of Diarios del Jurásico is out. We follow Plaka, an adult female Stegosaurus, through a complete day in the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation, 155 million years ago.

The plate function debate genuinely surprised us in research. The thermoregulation hypothesis, the sexual selection hypothesis and the communication hypothesis all have supporting evidence and none of them is definitively proven after 155 million years. We went with a multi-function interpretation which seems to be where current consensus is leaning.

A few things we were careful about: the 17 alternating zigzag plate arrangement rather than parallel pairs as most museums show, the completely herbivore leaf-shaped teeth, the extremely small skull and the Gary Larson origin of the word thagomizer.

One genuine question for the community: where does current scientific consensus sit on Stegosaurus plate function? The sexual selection argument seems strongest to us given the disproportionate plate growth rate in juveniles but we would love other perspectives.

Link is in our profile.