What was the fastest dinosaur ever?

Probably one of the ornithomimosaurs, ostrich-like dinosaurs with long, slim legs, says Susannah Maidment, a scientist at the Natural History Museum in London. Nobody knows their exact top speed.

What is the fastest dinosaur alive today?

The peregrine falcon. Birds are dinosaurs, and a diving peregrine falcon can reach about 322 kilometers (200 miles) per hour. Nothing else on the planet flies, runs or swims that fast.

How do scientists know how fast dinosaurs ran?

Mostly from fossil footprints. The space between the steps, compared with the length of the legs, gives a rough speed. Scientists also build computer models of skeletons and test them on animals alive today, like ostriches and emus.

Was Carnotaurus fast?

Yes! Katia's fact from Dinosaurs Are Back: "It was one of the fastest dinosaurs, capable of swallowing its prey in a single gulp!"

Big dinosaur questions

What was the fastest dinosaur?

Nobody ever timed a dinosaur with a stopwatch. Scientists work out their speeds from footprints, computers and a lot of careful thinking.

And here's a surprise: the fastest dinosaur of all is alive today.

The Carnotaurus from Dinosaurs Are Back, a paper cut-out

The Velociraptor from Dinosaurs Are Back, a paper cut-out

Up to 65 kilometers an hour, thank you very much!

The short answer

The fastest dinosaur was probably one of the ostrich-like dinosaurs, with long, slim legs. Nobody knows exactly how fast they were.
Of Spike's ten, Velociraptor could run up to 65 km/h (about 40 mph), faster than most humans. Carnotaurus was one of the fastest too.
The fastest dinosaur alive today is the peregrine falcon. Birds are dinosaurs, and it dives at about 322 km/h (200 mph).

The fastest ever?

The dinosaurs that looked like ostriches

Ask Susannah Maidment, a scientist at the Natural History Museum in London, and she'll tell you the fastest dinosaur “was likely an Ornithomimosauria”. What a mouthful! Most people just call them the ostrich-like dinosaurs.

They ran on two long, slim legs, with the big muscles bunched up at the top. A leg like that swings like a pendulum, and that makes a fast runner. One of them was Ornithomimus (say it: orn-ITH-oh-MEE-mus), which means “bird mimic”.

You'll find lots of speeds for them online, and they don't agree. Nobody knows exactly how fast they could go.

Ornithomimus, an outline — Spot the likeness? Not drawn to scale. Silhouettes from PhyloPic.

An ostrich, an outline — Spot the likeness? Not drawn to scale. Silhouettes from PhyloPic.

How do scientists know?

How do you time a dinosaur?

Until the 1960s, lots of people thought every dinosaur was slow and clumsy. Then, in 1964, scientists found Deinonychus, a dinosaur with big hooked claws, a light body and strong legs, and they began to think again. Here's how they work out speeds now.

1
Footprints
Fossil footprints show how far apart a dinosaur's steps were. Compare that with how long its legs were, and you get a rough speed. The faster you run, the longer your strides.
2
But... mud
The best footprints were made in soft mud. As Eugenia Gold, a scientist at Suffolk University in Boston, puts it: if you've ever tried to run through mud, you know you're probably not running at your full speed.
3
Computers
Scientists build a dinosaur skeleton in a computer, give it muscles and let it run. They test their models on animals alive today, like people, ostriches and emus, to check the answers make sense.

Even with all that, “we don't have amazingly good data on maximum speed”, says William Sellers, a scientist at the University of Manchester. That's why different books and websites give such different speeds for the same dinosaur, and why we don't list them here.

Ready, steady, go!

Is a Velociraptor faster than a cheetah?

No, although it was quick. Katia's fact from Dinosaurs Are Back:

Velociraptors were small, like a big turkey, but very fast! They could run up to 65 kilometers per hour, faster than most humans. That's about 40 miles!

That's fast. But a cheetah, the fastest mammal on land, can reach 97 or even 113 km/h (60 or 70 miles per hour) over a short sprint. And a diving peregrine falcon leaves them both far behind.

Top speeds, drawn to scale

Velociraptor from Katia's facts in Dinosaurs Are Back, the cheetah from National Geographic Kids, the falcon from Live Science. We don't show speeds for other extinct dinosaurs, because nobody knows them well enough.

From Dinosaurs Are Back

Speedy friends from Spike's story

Carnotaurus

Carnotaurus was a fast, meat-eating dinosaur with remarkably short arms. It was one of the fastest dinosaurs, capable of swallowing its prey in a single gulp!

Its name means “meat-eating bull”. It had two horns above its eyes, like a bull. On a phone or tablet, tap “See it in your room” to put it on your floor. It's much smaller than the real thing, luckily. Carnotaurus facts

3D Carnotaurus from Dinosaurs Are Back, ready to stand in your room in augmented reality

Drag to spin. On a phone or tablet this opens AR.

How fast could a T. rex run?

Scientists still argue about T. rex. Working out a giant's speed from its bones is tricky, and different studies get very different answers. In the story, Spike found out the hard way:

“I felt so tiny next to him. He chased me for hours, and we were both screaming!”

T. rex facts, and T. rex in 3D

Who was faster, Velociraptor or T. rex?

We know Velociraptor could run up to 65 km/h. For T. rex, nobody can say for sure, so this race is still a mystery. Our tip: don't race either of them.

The fastest dinosaur of all

It's alive, and it can fly

Birds are dinosaurs, and “the peregrine falcon is the fastest dinosaur,” says Eugenia Gold. In a dive, a peregrine falcon can reach about 322 km/h (200 mph). Nothing else on the planet flies, runs or swims that fast.

So the next time you see a bird zoom past, you've just watched a dinosaur in a hurry. Why birds are dinosaurs

A peregrine falcon in a dive, an outline

Questions kids ask

Quick answers

What was the fastest dinosaur ever?: Probably one of the ornithomimosaurs, ostrich-like dinosaurs with long, slim legs, says Susannah Maidment, a scientist at the Natural History Museum in London. Nobody knows their exact top speed.
Is a Velociraptor faster than a cheetah?: No. A Velociraptor could run up to 65 kilometers (about 40 miles) per hour, faster than most humans. A cheetah can reach 97 or even 113 kilometers (60 or 70 miles) per hour, over short distances.
How fast could a T. rex run?: Scientists still argue about T. rex. Its speed has to be worked out from its bones and footprints, and different studies get very different answers. In Dinosaurs Are Back, a T. rex chases Spike for hours!
What is the fastest dinosaur alive today?: The peregrine falcon. Birds are dinosaurs, and a diving peregrine falcon can reach about 322 kilometers (200 miles) per hour. Nothing else on the planet flies, runs or swims that fast.
How do scientists know how fast dinosaurs ran?: Mostly from fossil footprints. The space between the steps, compared with the length of the legs, gives a rough speed. Scientists also build computer models of skeletons and test them on animals alive today, like ostriches and emus.
Was Carnotaurus fast?: Yes! Katia's fact from Dinosaurs Are Back: "It was one of the fastest dinosaurs, capable of swallowing its prey in a single gulp!"

Keep asking

Dinosaurs Are Back

Spike pays a Velociraptor detective in chickens and gets a whispered warning from a hurt Carnotaurus. All ten dinosaurs step off the page with a phone or tablet.

Buy on Amazon · $14.99 Look inside

Where these facts come from

Katia's facts are from the last page of Dinosaurs Are Back. Everything else was checked on these pages on September 27, 2026.

Live Science: What was the fastest dinosaur? (28 April 2025): the ornithomimosaurs, footprints and mud, computer models, the peregrine falcon
Natural History Museum, London: Ornithomimus: bird mimic
National Geographic Kids: Cheetah: 60 or perhaps even 70 miles (97 or 113 kilometers) an hour

Picture credits

Ornithomimus silhouette: Christiana Garros, via PhyloPic, CC BY 4.0.
Ostrich, cheetah and peregrine falcon silhouettes: Ferran Sayol, Margot Michaud and Andy Wilson, via PhyloPic, public domain (CC0).