ELi5: why do carnivorous dinosaurs have eyes on the side of their head?
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They didn’t. Their eyes were more to the sides than most predatory mammals, but they still had front-facing eyes. This gave them more peripheral vision, while still having good binocular vision as well.
Take a look at a predatory bird from the front, like an eagle. With the exception of the eagle developing a beak their skull isn’t that much different from other dinosaurs.
Well, pretty famously T. Rex had forward facing eyes which makes the whole “they can’t see you if you don’t move” thing pretty ridiculous. A good rule of thumb is not to trust Jurassic Park. Could you be more specific? Which depictions are you referring to?
*not only that but according to [David Hone](https://youtu.be/f-jD7kQvyPs) they would have had the largest eyeball of any land animal, ever…so between that and their sense of smell you’d be done for
The idea that predators have eyes on the front & prey have eyes on the side is really only limited to mammals & some birds. The larger generalisation for most animals is that their eye position depends where attacks can come from. Most sea creatures have eyes on the side of their head, whether they’re predator or prey, because they live in an environment where attacks can come from any angle, so they need a wider field of vision, at the cost of binocular vision. Animals that live on earth might benefit from the depth perception that comes from binocular vision, at the cost of a wider field of vision.
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