Two-legged dinosaurs like T Rex wagged tails while running for stability

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Two-legged dinosaurs like the mighty T Rex wagged their tails when they ran to stay balanced, similar to how humans swing their arms while walking and running, a new study suggests. “When I first saw the simulation results I was very surprised, but after running a range of further simulations making the tails heavier, lighter and even no tail at all, we were able to conclusively demonstrate that the tail wagging was a means of controlling angular momentum throughout their gait,” Peter Bishop, a research fellow at Harvard University in the US, said in a statement. “Essentially, our findings show that dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor wagged their tails from side to side when they ran, which helped them stay balanced,” Dr Bishop said. “We infer this mechanism to have existed in many other bipedal non-avian dinosaurs as well, and our methodology provides new avenues for exploring the functional diversity of dinosaur tails in the future,” the scientists wrote.