New clues about dino speed come from birds strutting through mud

Ask Google “how accelerated were dinosaurs,” and you’ll rapidly get a clump of answers. It’s said that Tyrannosaurus rex could person tally a five-minute mile — and Velociraptors could person gone doubly arsenic fast. But a caller survey suggests these numbers mightiness not beryllium rather right.

The occupation is that scientists estimation dinosaurs’ velocity based connected tracks they near successful bedewed crushed millions of years ago. And for decades, researchers person utilized a reasonably elemental look to nexus dinos’ stride to their speed. Experiments with birds strutting done mud present amusement that narration is much analyzable than expected.

Researchers shared the findings June 25 successful the diary Biology Letters.

Muddy math

Peter Falkingham led the research. He’s a paleobiologist astatine Liverpool John Moores University successful England. Over a video telephone from a fossil excavation adjacent Oxford, England, helium points his telephone down to amusement a fossilized footprint that could acceptable some of his feet aggregate times. It was astir apt near by a ample sauropod. These were long-necked dinosaurs that looked a small similar giraffes.

“The faster you move, the longer the stride you take,” says Falkingham. In the 1970s, a zoologist named Robert McNeill Alexander created equations to calculate animals’ speeds utilizing the region betwixt their footprints. Now, immoderate idiosyncratic who recovered dinosaur tracks could, successful theory, find retired however accelerated it went.

“It’s casual to plug numbers into the equation and get a fig out,” Falkingham says. “You consciousness similar you’ve done a calculation, truthful it indispensable beryllium correct.” But that whitethorn not beryllium true.

To travel up with his velocity equations, Alexander studied however mammals walk. Dinosaurs, though, are overmuch much akin to modern birds, says Jonathan Codd. He is simply a physiologist astatine the University of Manchester successful England. The mammals Alexander watched were besides walking connected hard, adust ground. But animals lone permission footprints successful bedewed soil, Codd points out.

For the mathematics to travel retired right, researchers besides request to plug successful however acold an animal’s hep was from the ground. That’s often chartless erstwhile each scientists person near of a dino is footprints. 

All told, Alexander’s look tin springiness a unsmooth thought of however accelerated an carnal was moving, Falkingham says. But those numbers are not arsenic acceptable successful chromatic arsenic technological studies often marque them seem. “I got grumpy astatine speechmaking each these papers,” Falkingham says. So, helium decided to enactment the mathematics to the test.

Scientists often usage fossilized dinosaur footprints to cipher however accelerated these animals moved. But those estimates mightiness not beryllium right. Greg Willis/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

A fowl experiment

Falkingham dug up videos helium recorded implicit 10 years ago. The clips showed helmeted guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) walking successful mud. He primitively took the videos due to the fact that helium wanted to survey however the birds’ feet moved successful and retired of the muck.

This was messy business. Falkingham had to cleanable the birds’ feet aft each experiment. He besides had to marque his ain mud utilizing poppy seeds and tiny solid bubbles. That’s due to the fact that helium was...