SCIENCE

T. rex Trying…

A new cartoon series counts the many things tiny-armed Tyrannosaurus couldn’t do: cross-country ski, eat from a buffet, count to five

Riley Black

Science Correspondent

A reconstruction of Tyrannosaurus rex on display at the National Museum of Natural History.
A reconstruction of Tyrannosaurus rex on display at the National Museum of Natural History. Photo by the author

I can’t help feel bad for Tyrannosaurus. The dinosaur’s relatively minuscule arms are a near-constant source of ridicule. It doesn’t matter that there were other fearsome predatory dinosaurs with even smaller and apparently useless arms—the short arms of the “tyrant king” are a cruel evolutionary joke.

All the same, the tumblr blog T-Rex Trying… is a whimsical line-drawing catalog of all the things Tyrannosaurus couldn’t do with those small arms. Everything from cross-country skiing to simply counting to five would have posed a challenge, although I think my personal favorite is Tyrannosaurus trying to navigate the sneeze-guard at a buffet. Although such a scenario assumes that Tyrannosaurus would have had the manners to stand in line for the steam-tray fare and would not have gobbled up the bacon- and potato-stuffed clientele….

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Riley Black

Riley Black is the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs and many other books. She is a science correspondent for Smithsonian magazine covering fossils and natural history, and she writes about the prehistoric past for a variety of publications.