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Kangaroo rex

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For more than 100 years, most bipedal dinosaurs have been reconstructed in a semi-upright, kangaroo-like posture with a dragging tail. In many cases, the bones would have to be broken and joints disarticulated in order to achieve such a posture (f.e. the broken tail in upright iguanodonts). 
Out of curiosity, I wanted to look what an anatomically correct T. rex would look like in such a posture and how far it would be possible for such an animal without breaking or dislocating bones. I think the posture above would still be anatomically possible for the animal, but of course we know today that this kangaroo stance is not correct for the living animal, and I am still wondering how people could have thought that dinosaurs could have even walk in that position. It still looks funny, though. 
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Rex-Shadao's avatar
Easy. The only living creatures that have short forelimbs and long, bony tails were the kangaroos and their relatives.  Since they were upright and had their tails on the ground (for the most part), it was easy to assume that dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus would have a similar position.  Scientists back in those days tend to try to fit the fossils into the shapes of living creatures they knew.  When they found what appears to an enlarged iguana tooth and several reptilian bones, they thought it was a giant iguana and thus model it after the actual living iguana.  But when they found complete skeletons of creatures that did not fit any living creature's skeleton models, they went with whatever animal fits the closest in terms of model.

Really, these old fashioned models humble and remind us of just how little we know about dinosaurs in spite of more than a hundred years of digging.  These are unique creatures by their own right.