T. rexes were the original slow walkers — watch

You may think you know how dinosaurs moved from pop culture, but a new study suggests the mighty T. rex may have moved at a more leisurely walking speed than you imagined.

In a study published Wednesday, researchers from the Netherlands shared their findings on the likely walking speed of the T. rex. They arrived at their conclusion through 3D reconstruction.

The researchers used Trix, a nearly complete T. rex fossil excavated by the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands, as the basis for their model.

To arrive at their proposed walking speed, the researchers didn’t focus on Trix’s legs — they examined its tail.

Animals tend to walk at the rhythm that uses the least energy. For T. rexes, that meant matching their gait to the swaying of their tails.

The team came up with a walking speed of 2.86 miles per hour. That’s much slower than previous estimates based only on T. rex leg length.

The slower walking speed proposed by the study is in range of what’s common for animals from humans to elephants, according to the researchers.