T. rex’s silly-looking arms were built for slashing
Robust bones and bearlike claws suggest the dino’s ridiculously small limbs were far from useless
SEATTLE — Tyrannosaurus rex may have had small arms, but it was no pushover.
This fierce dinosaur is known for its giant head, powerful jaws and overall fearsome appearance — except for those comical-looking arms. But the roughly meter-long limbs weren’t just vestigial reminders of a longer-armed past, paleontologist Steven Stanley of the University of Hawaii at Manoa said October 23 at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. Instead, the limbs were well-adapted for vicious slashing at close quarters, he argued.