T-Rex was a pursuit predator using long-distance endurance rather than short bursts of speed, likely hunting nocturnally to close the distance before running down its prey.

Hone explains that T-Rex's biomechanics—energy-efficient foot locking, long tail muscles for propulsion, and a top speed of about 25 mph (40 kph)—suggest a hyena-like persistence hunting strategy, aided by nocturnal vision and a keen sense of smell. ✦ AI generated

Dave Hone · Lex Fridman · 2025-09-04 · original ↗

They're relatively efficient. compared to a lot of other things, and particularly compared to the herbivores. So that means they're probably looking at long distance rather than speed. And that makes sense, because even though the kind of stuff we're talking about, like I said, maybe they're getting to 20, 25 miles an hour, that's pretty quick, but some of the smaller stuff is going to be a lot faster than that. And remember, that's a real upper estimate. They're probably not that quick. Because they're just jogging after you. Right, but they've got they've got the distance. So yeah, so it's much more hyena or wolf-like strategy than like a cheetah going for hyperspeed or a lion going for a relatively quick burst and it either gets you or it doesn't. ... I think it's either or some combination of being nocturnal. So it's relatively easy to sneak, isn't quite the wrong word, but approach things to cut the distance down for your initial strike and then just running them down.

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