While the Tyrannosaurus Rex may have had large and intimidating jaws, it may have been over-compensating for something. After all, the fearsome dinosaur sported stubby little arms that would have been virtually useless for hunting and catching prey.
While the beast’s body would have measured almost 40 feet long from head to tail, the arms would have measured a laughable 3.3 feet long. But why did the T. Rex have such tiny arms? The short answer is: it’s complicated.
The complications come from the fact that no one has a definitive answer. One idea links the small arms to evolution, an argument that suggests how T. Rex evolved from therapods and how the arms grew smaller as the head grew larger.
Intriguingly, these tiny arms weren’t wimpy by any means; in fact, they may have been quite muscular. These findings indicate that the arms may have played a physical role in the T. Rex’s life, whether they helped stabilize the dinosaur during feeding, mating, or otherwise.
Future research into the T. Rex’s history could uncover more details, but it will take some more time.