Were Sauropod Dinosaurs Two-legged?

 For those who don't know, sauropods were a type of dinosaur that had extremely long necks and tails who walked on all-fours like big elephants. But what if sauropod dinosaurs were actually two-legged? A 2019 study provides evidence that they possibly were.


The study says, "Three parallel, manus-only[front feet] sauropod trackways from the Coffee Hollow A-Male tracksite (Glen Rose Formation, Kendall County, Texas) were studied separately by researchers from the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country and the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences. Footprint and trackway measurements generally show good agreement between the two groups’ data sets. Footprints appear to be shallowly impressed true tracks rather than undertracks. 


One of the Coffee Hollow trackways shows marked asymmetry in the lengths of paces that begin with the left as opposed to the right forefoot, and two of the Coffee Hollow trackways are unusually broad. The Coffee Hollow trackways differ enough from the manus portions of other Glen Rose Formation sauropod trackways to suggest that they were made by a different kind of sauropod. Greater differential pressure exerted on the substrate by the forefeet than the hindfeet probably explains the Coffee Hollow trackways, like other manus-only sauropod trackways, but the possibility that they indicate unusual locomotion cannot at present be ruled out."


Personally, I am doubtful that they walked on two legs, most especially their front ones. The tracks are probably some bizarre and rare occurrence. But it is an interesting theory nonetheless.


If you'd like to read more about dinosaurs, check out the version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic "The Lost World" that I published, entitled The Lost World: Movie Edition which is also available as a paperback. To preview some of this version, see this article.


I also discuss modern living dinosaurs and the plesiosaurus in my book Legends & Lore of Sea Monsters.


Image courtesy of Pixabay.com Commercial free license.




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