Walk like an emu

Comparative studies of other, living animals have done much to elucidate how dinosaurs moved, behaved, and functioned. Here's a report on yet another such study:

The mysterious moves of two-footed Jurassic dinosaurs traveling along a long-lost beach have been brought to life with emus.

Unlike computer models that have been developed to simulate the gait, and therefore the possible trackways of specific dinosaurs, live emus allow for direct comparisons of complex tracks to specific behaviors, say researchers looking at the thousands of tracks left behind 165 million years ago by dinosaurs at Red Gulch in northern Wyoming.

Among the surprises they’ve found is that tracks once interpreted as steady walking may actually be created by the animals stopping at mid-stride.

Another enigmatic type of trackway that now makes sense is where the dinos appear to have crossed one leg over the other. The motion is a seemingly weird thing to do, until you watch an emu making the same sort of track, explains Brent Breithaupt, director and curator of the University of Wyoming’s Geological Museum.

Posted by David on October 21, 2006 10:31 AM