Among all of the dinosaurs known to man, the Tyrannosaurus Rex (often shortened simply to T-Rex) is undoubtedly the most well-known prehistoric predator on the planet. Travel anywhere in the world and show the locals a line-up of dinosaur faces, and the T-Rex will likely be the most recognizable of the bunch.

A lot of its fame can be attributed to its many pop culture appearances that have popularized the T-Rex and given it the moniker of being “King of the Dinosaurs”.

Despite all of the glory and fame, however, the “King” has always been ridiculed over one noticeable physical characteristic that sticks out like a sore thumb: it’s hilariously scrawny little arms.

For years its tiny arms and two stubby finger-like claw appendages have been the subject of countless jokes, usually for how short and useless they appear to be. Cartoon T-Rexes can often be seen struggling to put on pants or reach their wallets.

It doesn’t help that the arms also slightly resemble chicken wings. Heck, the resemblance is so fitting that people are even starting to put little plastic T-Rex arms on actual chickens just for laughs.

But have we gotten it all wrong? Were T-Rex arms really that laughable in real life?

In reality, those wimpy little arms you’ve spent years ridiculing could kill even the strongest bodybuilder or athlete alive in seconds.

At their peak physical strength, humans can curl around 260 pounds. Meanwhile, just the bicep of even the weakest adult T-Rex could effortlessly curl 430 pounds. Although its arms look useless, that perceived weakness is merely an illusion. An illusion that is probably a result of the arms only appearing to look so small and fragile since they appear to just be drooping off such a massively giant body.

Meanwhile a single T-Rex arm alone measured 3 feet in length.

In an interview with Popsci, the late Dr. Jack Conrad, a paleontologist who worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said that a T-Rex’s arm “had the strength to rip a human’s arm right out of its socket.”

Consider that as food for thought the next time you think about making a playful pun about how pitiful those T-Rex arms were. They’d put you to shame any day of the week.