I’d love to see an informed response as to why we think they ran instead of hopped. Is there a difference in the skeleton or muscles that would tell us?
Comparative anatomy
Submitted 2 years ago by Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/594e2664-7ecb-497c-847e-9e2dab804c7a.jpeg
Comments
Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 2 years ago
mineralfellow@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Hupf@feddit.org 2 years ago
Oh God imagine we’d actually found huge parallel footprints.
IAmTheZeke@lemmy.world 2 years ago
They were all made in clay-rich sandstone, which preserved the tracks so well that they have impressions of the scales on the skin of these dinosaurs.
Oooo so we know for sure what the scale shapes are? Fascinating! Where is dino science on feathers currently? Did some dinosaurs resemble birds more than lizards? Sorry I’m late. Be wild if we had such impressions of feathers somewhere
Lemming6969@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Likely footprint patterns
Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 2 years ago
Good point actually.
Not_mikey@slrpnk.net 2 years ago
Kangaroos hop because they can store a lot of energy in there Achilles tendon and use that to propel them forward without using much energy. It’s good for covering long distances over flat terrain while using as little energy as possible , which is good for the Australian outback as they hop between small patches of vegitation separated by miles of desert. It’s not that good for ambushing or quickly chasing prey in a rainforest like the t rex is probably doing.
InverseParallax@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Was gonna say, the tendon strength simply doesn’t scale like that, rexes are way too massive.
NegativeInf@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Probably something to do with strain on the body. Studies show T. rex couldn’t even run. Maybe a fast walk. Additionally, the way the muscles attach to the bones probably don’t support hopping.
BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works 2 years ago
The context of this comment is amazing.
Imagine a creature, that died over 65 million years ago (earth was at the other side of the galaxy back then) and yet we can detect how the muscles attached to the bone
ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Skull weight alone would make hopping difficult. Their heads are huge.
pyre@lemmy.world 2 years ago
yep, the first thing I noticed was how tiny the kangaroo’s head and upper body is compared to the legs.
TotalFat@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Maybe they tucked their huge heads and rolled around like rollerrats. Except huge.
PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 2 years ago
Most likely the weight difference would be the biggest issue here.
Same reason why to scale bug wings wouldn’t let you fly, that square cube law can lead to some very unfun conclusions where big beasties are concerned.
Or some absolutely terrifying ones in Shin Godzilla’s case.
turnipjs@lemmy.ml 2 years ago
SQUARE CUBE LAW MENTIONED
Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 2 years ago
I wonder if babies and adolescents hopped around? There’s already the theory that T.rexs lived in family groups with adolescents catching lots of small prey and adults catching the occassional large prey and providing protection.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 years ago
first off AFAIK they don’t even have anything near the amount of muscle in the right places to try hopping, but even if they did manage it i’m pretty sure their legs would snap in half when they landed and then as the rest of the body met the ground they’d crack ribs and stuff as well.
Imagine trying to jump around while wearing a dishwasher on your back, even if you’re monstrously strong in every part of your body it’s gonna fucking suuuuuuuuck
xx3rawr@sh.itjust.works 2 years ago
Hip anatomy? Structured more like a bird hip rather than a reptile or kangaroo
wewbull@feddit.uk 2 years ago
I was watching a Carrion Crow hop around just yesterday. Fast movement was a hop. Slow movement was a walk.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 2 years ago
I’ve seen a lot of little birds hop around. Not only are birds dinosaurs, but the particular birds I’ve seen hopping are very similar in shape to a T Rex.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 years ago
My chickens run around very similar to the run we see of T-Rex/raptors in movies. They lean forward and low and run surprisingly fast for an animal with wings that they just tuck.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Yeah, that seems more likely from what I know about dinosaurs. Just saying, we already have birds who hop to compare to. The kangaroo idea just strikes me as silly
SparrowRanjitScaur@lemmy.world 2 years ago
hakunawazo@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Anticorp@lemmy.world 2 years ago
I’ve watched scrub jays running around on my lawn, eating bugs, looking exactly like little dinosaurs.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 years ago
aeronmelon@lemmy.world 2 years ago
And what if they skipped daintily while holding giant lollipops?
GraniteM@lemmy.world 2 years ago
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 years ago
I think I saw that anime.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 years ago
T Rex only known organism to lick its way to the center of a Tootsie pop
TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee 2 years ago
The math maths
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Imagining a TRex with enormous bunny-shaped ears
GJdan@programming.dev 2 years ago
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Hehe
darki@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Does the penguin fly? Mass/per/volume is a thing…
geogle@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Mass per volume is density, and I suspect the Trex and kangaroo are similar (~1000 kg/m^3) so yes they’d both bounce in that case. I think what you’re looking for is surface area to volume, which decreases rapidly as an object gets larger while maintaining geometry.
leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 2 years ago
It’s worth noting that most extinct dinosaurs were probably more similar to surviving ones (i.e., birds) than to mammals and reptiles when it comes to bones and respiratory systems, and, by extension, density.
That is to say, they probably could get that big because they were quite literally full of air.
Some of them (especially sauropods, but maybe also other big species like tyrannosaurs) probably had even more complex and efficient air sac systems than modern birds…
ace_garp@lemmy.world 2 years ago
+1 Terrifying
curiousaur@reddthat.com 2 years ago
They absolutely did.
gibmiser@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Be noisy as hell
aeronmelon@lemmy.world 2 years ago
The sun and some clouds with human legs, jumping up and down and causing an earthquake as a scribe comes out of his writing tower to investigate in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
FatTony@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Stop that, stop that! Go on, clear off! Go on, go away! And you, clear off! Bloody weather.
leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 2 years ago
Bloody weather…
unreachable@lemmy.world 2 years ago
angrystego@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Circles in the glass of water intensify.