Why do dinosaur preditors have eyes on the side of their head

So in present day our preditors (like a lion) have their eyes on the front their head to stalk prey, were as prey (zebra) has their eyes on the side of their head to watch out for preditors. But carnivourus dinosaur like t.rex have their eyes on its side. Shouldn't it be the same princible?

Great question. But you must remember that dinosaurs were reptiles and the predator reptiles, even today, don't have double eye vision that may enable them to predict the distance and depth the way predators mammals do. So it is obvious that dinosaurs, who arrived so earlier in the evolutionary cycle, could not have the evolutionary facility of double eyed vision.

there seems to be a debate how much tyrannosaurus was a scavenger versus a hunter, but the eye sockets do point forward in T.rex, so that is something which does support a capability of active hunting.

Generally the position of eye sockets have to do with the ability of distance estimation. Distance estimation is important for active hunters, but it's also useful for other things, e.g. climbing in trees. So while monkeys or apes have forward pointing eyes they are often vegetarian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannosaur…