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Dead millions of years, but still drawing a crowd, no one doubts that T-Rex was fierce, was it really that fast, and if it was chasing you, could you outrun it?

"This thing can run. This work we've done in University of Manchester has absolutely been nailed that shot. The absolute speeds is something we gonna have to work on, because that's ongoing work. This is just our initial findings. But I am absolutely sure that this thing was a predator. This was no scavenging slouch. "

Hollywood has never had any doubt that the T-Rex could outrun a speeding car. But scientists had never been able to agree, some insisting it just plodded about, living on animal which were already dead. So researchers filed the measurements of bones and muscles into a computer model for a human athlete and a number of two-legged animals and dinosaurs. The computer worked out how fast each one could run.

"So if the dinosaurs hadn't become extinct, how would they've got on against human opposition? We've come down to this athletic track to find out."

After 2.8 seconds at champions Brinter has run about 25.7 meters. In the same time an ostrich would have run just over 43 meters and the prize goes to the cat-sized dinosaur Compsognathus, who at that time has already finished the 50-meter course.

The research may be new, but some young dinosaur fans here seem to know it all already.

"I’ll choose Tyrannosaurus Rex, because it's so big, it can run faster than David Beckham. I know that for sure. It can run about 20 miles per hour. But often Compsognathus is faster. I know that."

So the experts agree Compsognathus's the fastest thing on two legs.

Damon Green. ITV News.