The locomotion of sauropod dinosaurs: gaits and size constraints

• Applicant: Dr. Jens Nikolaus Lallensack
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2020 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 437023731

This project is intended to investigate how the largest land-living animals in history, the sauropod dinosaurs, moved. Footprints can make a valuable contribution to this question, as they are the only direct evidence of the movement of extinct animals. This integrative project intends to, for the first time, bring different lines of evidence together: Studies on living animals; measurements on particularly complete skeletons; biomechanical considerations; as well as statistical analyses of a large sample of fossil tracks. On the one hand, the aim is to create the basis for a better interpretation of sauropod tracks. Above all, this includes more accurate identifications of the responsible trackmaker taxon and improved estimations of body size based on tracks. On the other hand, I aim to address two explicit gaps in knowledge: 1) the question of which gaits sauropods probably used and 2) to what extent their gigantism influenced and restricted their locomotion.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Host: Dr. Peter Falkingham