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American Zoologist 2000 40(4):640-663; doi:10.1093/icb/40.4.640
© 2000 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
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Theropod Locomotion1

James O. Farlow2,1, Stephen M. Gatesy2, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.3, John R. Hutchinson4 and John M. Robinson5
1 Department of Geosciences, Indiana-Purdue University at Fort Wayne, Indiana 46805
2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912
3 Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
4 Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720
5 Department of Physics, Indiana-Purdue University at Fort Wayne, Indiana 46805

Theropod (carnivorous) dinosaurs spanned a range from chicken-sized to elephant-sized animals. The primary mode of locomotion in these dinosaurs was fairly conservative: Theropods were erect, digitigrade, striding bipeds. Even so, during theropod evolution there were changes in the hip, tail, and hindlimb that undoubtedly affected the way these dinosaurs walked and ran, a trend that reached its extreme in the evolution of birds. Some derived non-avian theropods developed hindlimb proportions that suggest a greater degree of cursoriality than in more primitive groups. Despite this, fossilized trackways provide no evidence for changes in stride lengths of early as opposed to later non-avian theropods. However, these dinosaurs did take relatively longer strides—at least compared with footprint length—than bipedal ornithischian dinosaurs or ground birds. Judging from trackway evidence, non-avian theropods usually walked, and seldom used faster gaits. The largest theropods were probably not as fleet as their smaller relatives.


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