Dinosaur Did Not Walk Upright -- Even Though Majority Believe it Did

When most people think of the Tyrannosaurus rex, they think that the creature walked upright, its small arms practically useless as it stomped across the landscape. Essentially, we imagine the T. rex as a prehistoric Godzilla, dragging its massive tail across the ground. Yet this image of the terrifying dinosaur is completely off, according to researchers. A Cornell University research team has tried to find why this incorrect image is the one that has stuck with the majority of the population.

The T. rex was an agile, dynamic predator. It never walked upright, though. Instead, it moved horizontally, using its large tail for balance as it hunted its prey. In fact, since the 1970s scientists have tried to instill this version of the dinosaur in the minds of the public. It has been increasingly represented in textbooks and popular literature.

The study, published in a forthcoming issue of Journal of Geoscience Education, found that the imprinting of bad dinosaur anatomy at the earliest ages from unscientific sources is nearly impossible to overcome. The researchers, including Warren Allmon, Robert Ross and Don Duggan-Haas, asked participants in their study to draw a T. Rex. In order to quantify their findings, they measured the angle of the spine of the drawn dinosaur. Overall, they found that 63 percent of pre-college and 72 percent of college-age students that they surveyed drew the upright T. rex as opposed to the horizontal version. In addition, most students drew the dinosaur at an average angle of 50 to 60 degrees, falling within about 5 degrees of the incorrect posture.  

Why do so many people draw this carnivorous dinosaur incorrectly? Researchers blame shows that feature Barney the purple dinosaur or Rex from the "Toy Story" movies. The media is full of incorrect images of the dinosaur, even if the correct image appears in text books.

The study shows that people are highly influenced by preconceptions, even if they are corrected in the classroom.