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Scientists may have finally cracked the mystery of why T. rex had such tiny arms

Nypost · · 594 words · By Richard Pollina
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What to know about Scientists may have finally cracked the mystery of why T. rex had such tiny arms

Scientists may have finally cracked the mystery of why T.

Claims checked 8
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center83%
Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Scientists may have finally cracked the mystery of why T.

Why it matters

rex had such tiny arms See more of our coverage in your search results.

Common ground

Add The New York Post on GoogleA new study claims to have solved the long-standing mystery of why Tyrannosaurus rex had such disproportionately small arms.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://nypost.com/2026/05/27/science/new-study-suggests-to-have-found-why-t-rex…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 8 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 5
info Single Source 1
verified Verified 1
verified Verified By Reference 1
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Claim 1: “The massive carnivore dominated the forests and floodplains of what is now western North America for roughly 2 to 3 million years”
CORROBORATED
Wikipedia and AMNH confirm T. rex lived in western North America. Web results confirm it inhabited forested river valleys/floodplains.
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web search NEUTRAL — rex or colloquially T-Rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It lived throughout what is now western North America, on what was then an island continent ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannosaurus
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web search NEUTRAL — Where did T. rex live? · In western North America. ; When did T. rex live? · T.rex lived at the very end of the Late Cretaceous, which was about 90 to 66 million ...
https://www.amnh.org/dinosaurs/tyrannosaurus-rex
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web search NEUTRAL — Jan 15, 2026 ... Tyrannosaurus rex lived in forested river valleys in North America during the late Cretaceous period. It became extinct about 65 million years ...
https://www.facebook.com/cnn/posts/tyrannosaurus-rex-lived-l…
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Claim 2: “Charlie Roger Scherer, a doctoral student in Earth sciences at University College London, [is the lead author of the study].”
CORROBORATED
Web search results explicitly identify Charlie Roger Scherer, a doctoral student at University College London, as the lead author of the study.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Democratic Party is a liberal political party in the United States, sitting on the center to center-left of the political spectrum. Founded in 1828, it is the world's oldest active political party…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(United_State…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of notable American non-officeholders who endorsed Donald Trump for the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Donald_Trump_2024_pres…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of notable non-political figures and organizations that endorsed the Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kamala_Harris_2024_pre…
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
Claim 3: “in tyrannosaurids, each forelimb element reduced at a comparable rate”
SINGLE SOURCE
One web search result mentions that tyrannosaurids followed a different pattern where all parts of the forelimb shrunk at a more comparable rate, but there is not enough independent corroboration to mark as corroborated.
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web search NEUTRAL — Tyrannosauridae (or tyrannosaurids, meaning "tyrant lizards") is a family of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs that comprises two subfamilies containing up to fifteen genera, including the eponymous T…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannosauridae
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web search NEUTRAL — The hunting behavior of tyrannosaurids is not directly material to the hypothesis I propose here for the phyletic reduction of the forelimbs, because the hypothesis con-cerns feeding behavior on a car…
https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app67/app009212021.…
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web search NEUTRAL — The scientists found that reduced forelimbs appeared independently in five major theropod groups, including tyrannosaurids, the family that included T. rex.Tyrannosaurids followed a different pattern,…
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-finally-think-they-know-…
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Claim 4: “T. rex is believed to have been Earth’s largest land predator, growing to over 40 feet long, weighing between 8 and 14 tons, and capable of crushing bone with over 12,000 pounds of bite force, according to the Smithsonian.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm the size (40ft), weight (up to 14 tons/6+ tons), and bite force (12,000 lbs) of T. rex, though the specific attribution to the Smithsonian is not explicitly detailed in the snippets, the facts themselves are widely corroborated.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. This is made possible by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid su…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth. It orbits around Earth at an average distance of 384,399 kilometers (238,854 mi), a distance roughly 30 times the width of Earth. It completes an orbit…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Sun is the star located at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surf…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 5: “Stephan Lautenschlager, a vertebrate paleontologist and senior lecturer in paleobiology at the University of Birmingham in England”
VERIFIED
Official University of Birmingham pages and professional profiles confirm Stephan Lautenschlager is a vertebrate paleontologist and Senior Lecturer in Palaeobiology.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_in_paleontology
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The following is a list of notable deaths in March 2018. Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence: Name, age, country of …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_March_2018
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web search NEUTRAL — Our researchers include world-leading palaeobiologists with expertise stretching from single-celled algae to the largest vertebrates to have walked the Earth, ...
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/ear…
+ 2 more evidence sources
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Claim 6: “A Royal Society research paper published May 20 suggests that T. rex, which averaged more than 40 feet long with arms stretching just 3 feet, naturally evolved smaller arms as its skull grew larger.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web sources confirm a study published by the Royal Society stating T. rex evolved smaller arms as its skull grew larger, and that it averaged over 40 feet long with 3-foot arms.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — May 20 is the 140th day of the year (141st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 225 days remain until the end of the year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_20
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, commonly referred to as the Royal Society, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society_of_Literature
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 7: “an asteroid slammed into Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula 66 million years ago, wiping out three-quarters of all life on Earth virtually overnight.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and other sources confirm the Chicxulub asteroid hit the Yucatán Peninsula 66 million years ago, causing the extinction of approximately 75% of all species.
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web search NEUTRAL — It was formed slightly over 66 million years ago when an asteroid, about ten kilometers (six miles) in diameter, struck Earth. The crater is estimated to be 200 ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater
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web search NEUTRAL — ... 66 million years ago, causing 75% of all animals to die out. Image: Don ... extinction event, 66 million years ago. Read more. The last non-bird ...
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-an-asteroid-caused-extinc…
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web search NEUTRAL — May 9, 2026 ... ... Yucatán Peninsula, changing life on our planet forever. ... extinction of nearly three quarters of all life on Earth, including the dinosaurs.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYHWA3gtlUm/?hl=en
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Claim 8: “Researchers analyzed 85 dinosaur species and found a consistent correlation among five groups — Tyrannosaurus, ceratosaurids, megalosaurids, abelisaurids and carcharodontosaurids — each showing a pattern of larger skulls and shorter forelimbs.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results confirm researchers analyzed 85 species and found a correlation between larger skulls and shorter forelimbs in specific groups including T. rex.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Nanotyrannus (/ˈnænoʊˌtaɪˌrænəs, -tɪ- /, NAN-o-ti-RAN-us) is a genus of tyrannosauroid dinosaur that lived in what is now western North America during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous, 67 …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotyrannus
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Tyrannosaurus is one of the most iconic dinosaurs and is known from numerous specimens, some of which have individually acquired notability due to their scientific significance and media coverage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specimens_of_Tyrannosaurus
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Tyrannosaurus () is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The type species Tyrannosaurus rex (rex meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to T. rex or colloquially T-Rex, is one of the best represente…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannosaurus
+ 3 more evidence sources
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.