Palaeontology: Fossilized tracks reveal some of the fastest dinosaur running speeds

 
Analysis of fossil footprints excavated in La Rioja, Spain, suggests that some theropod species (bipedal predatory dinosaurs) may run at speeds of up to 45 kilometers per hour. It turned out.A paper reporting this finding will be published in Scientific Reports this week.This finding shows the fastest running speed ever calculated from theropod footprint fossils.

Now, Pablo Navarro-Lorbés and colleagues have analyzed two groups of footprints (La Torre 1A-4500 and La Torre 1B-50) in the Early Cretaceous (2-6 million years ago). The La Torre 14A-6 line contains 1 preserved footprints, and the La Torre 6B-14 line contains 5 footprints.Three fingers were found in these footprints, the length of the foot was longer than the width of the foot, and it was highly possible that it was left by the same theropod species, but the species could not be identified. Navarro-Lorbés et al. Suggest that this unknown dinosaur species is a medium-sized dinosaur, highly agile, and may have been a Spinosauridae dinosaur or a Carcharodontosauria dinosaur. The 6A-1 trace dinosaurs were larger than the 7B-3 trace dinosaurs.

Navarro-Lorbés et al., Based on the angle of the footprints and the distance between the footprints, the theropods of the 6A-14 line run at 23.4-37.1 km / h and the theropods of the 6B-1 line run at 31.7-44.6 km / h. I calculated that I ran even faster.It is in the top three speeds estimated from theropod footprints.

Traces 6A-14 showed a smooth and consistent increase in estimated velocity, and traces 6B-1 showed a sudden change in velocity.In this regard, Navarro-Lorbés et al. Suggest that theropods in the 6B-1 line were running while adjusting their body movements.Our findings reveal how these dinosaurs moved and under what conditions they ran.

 
* This article is reprinted from "Nature Japan Featured Highlights".
Reprinted from: "Paleontology: A dinosaur with the fastest running speed found from fossil traces'