Limb-bone scaling indicates diverse stance and gait in quadrupedal ornithischian dinosaurs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The most primitive ornithischian dinosaurs were small bipeds, but quadrupedality evolved three times independently in the clade. The transition to quadrupedality from bipedal ancestors is rare in the history of terrestrial vertebrate evolution, and extant analogues do not exist. Constraints imposed on quadrupedal ornithischians by their ancestral bipedal bauplan remain unexplored, and consequently, debate continues about their stance and gait. For example, it has been proposed that some ornithischians could run, while others consider that none were cursorial.

Methodology/principal findings

Drawing on biomechanical concepts of limb bone scaling and locomotor theory developed for extant taxa, we use the largest dataset of ornithischian postcranial measurements so fa

SUBMITTER: Maidment SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3358279 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature