Friends Flag

Could a T-rex pick up the flag in a game of capture the flag with its nobly little arms?

Because we were getting told a story today at school about a T-rex called Jake, and he was playing capture the flag with his friends and errybody was like “he couldn’t pick that flag with those little arms yo” but i totes reckon he could. Tell us how it be y’all.

Sure T. rex’s arms could easily pick up the flag. I agree with Cal about why the arms were small–increased investment in head/jaw power required that something else had to be deemphasized. That did not, however, mean the arms were “functionally useless.” K. Carpenter concluded the arms were fairly well muscled and were used to help secure struggling prey. Btw, Greg Paul did not discover that T. rex had small scales. It was P. Currie who noted small scales, probably from the thoracic area, on skin impressions of a Tarbosaurus from Bugin Tsav. (This was published some years ago in Ichnos.) The presence of scales in large theropods like tyrannosaurs–and abelisaurs too IIRC–doesn’t preclude feathers in other/smaller theropods.

Anti-Flag – This Is The End (For You My Friend)