Footprints from around 150 million years ago reveal the strange stomping of a looping sauropod

Sauropod dinosaurs were many things. They were large, long and particularly avid plant eaters. But they certainly weren’t agile. Weighing around 80 tons, the most massive sauropods were slow, steady meanderers, much more suited to slightly hunched movement. of course only a tightly curved model.

A new analysis of a fossilized footprint, however, has found evidence of the closest thing to sauropod agility. Published in GeomaticsThe analysis recreates the movement of a single sauropod along a long, looping track dating to around 150 million years ago. According to the authors, the trail is approximately 313 feet long and has approximately 130 footprints, making it the largest and narrowest trail ever recorded for a sauropod.

“This track is unique because it is a complete loop,” said Anthony Romilio, study author and paleontologist at the University of Queensland, according to a press release. “Although we may never know why this dinosaur curled back on itself, the track offers an extremely rare chance to study how a giant sauropod managed a sharp looping turn before returning to its original direction of movement.”

Learn more: Highway of sauropod dinosaur footprints provides insight into life in the Middle Jurassic

A sharp turn for a heavy sauropod

About 150 million years ago, more than 20 species of sauropods roamed North America, including iconic species like the 100-foot-long sauropod. Diplodocus and the 80 feet long Apatosaurus. Although none of these extreme herbivores were particularly agile, only one sauropod from the era left footprints during a particularly sharp turn it took at what is now the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Track Site in Ouray County, Colorado.

Stored in sediment all this time, the dinosaur’s trick is still set in stone. But only a small part of the trail has been carefully documented and described by scientists, leaving a number of unanswered questions about the dinosaur’s movement and agility.

“It was difficult to document these footprints from the ground,” said Paul Murphey, another study author and paleontologist at the San Diego Museum of Natural History, according to the press release, “because of the size of the track.”

To solve this problem, researchers turned to drones, taking aerial photos images of the track, then transform the images into a high-resolution virtual model. This model allowed them to trace the complete sequence of the sauropod’s steps, helping to explain how these bulky creatures moved across the North American landscape.

Learn more: Theropod dinosaurs met to dance, mate and nest in Colorado about 100 million years ago

Analyzing the stride of sauropods

Specifically, the model revealed that the sauropod was moving northeast when it chose to turn west, then south, counterclockwise. “It was clear from the beginning that this animal started walking northeast, made a complete loop, and then finished in the same direction again,” Romilio said in the release.

Not only that, but the researchers also spotted slight changes in the sauropod’s steps during the loop – a characteristic of the sauropod stride that is only apparent on longer tracks.

“One of the clearest patterns was a variation in the width between the left and right footprints, going from quite narrow to noticeably wide,” Romilio added in the release. “This shift from narrow to wide step placement shows that the width of the footprint can change naturally as a dinosaur moves, meaning that short track segments with seemingly consistent widths can give a misleading picture of its usual walking style.”

Surprisingly, the study authors also observed that the sauropod’s step length was about 4 inches longer on one side than the other, suggesting that the herbivore could have limped, or at least had a strong preference for some of its legs.

Overall, the study authors emphasize that their imaging and modeling techniques could aid in the analysis of other tracks, even those that were not created by a limping, tightly turning sauropod.

“There are many long dinosaur tracks around the world where this method could be applied to extract [behavioral] information that was previously inaccessible,” Romilio concluded in the statement.

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