RE: Lack of Running Giant Theropod Tracks

[Sim Koning <simkoning@msn.com>]

    To more or less get to the point, I remember watching 'Dinosaur Attack!' on 
the Discovery channel (back in 99 I think) in which Jim Farlow formed a 
hypothesis that the Paluxy trackway preserved a giant theropod attack. Part of 
the show revolved around the fact that one of the footprints is missing and 
that some (such as Bird) had speculated that it was because the Acro/allosaur 
latched onto the side of its victim. Farlow said that if that were the case 
there should be some extremely distorted footprints (I also think there would 
be some massive tail drag marks, especially considering the tail length of an 
allosaurid). Jim and his colleagues then went on to posit that it was likely a 
sort of skip or hop made in an attempt to keep pace or break into a run. If 
that were the case, it would mean both of the allosaurid's feet were off the 
ground at one point and that by extension would be strong evidence that giant 
theropods could achieve a fully arial phase in their stride (running). So even 
though we may not have trackway evidence of giant theropods actually in the act 
of running (for whatever reason) we *do* have possible evidence of a giant 
carnosaur skipping or hopping off of one leg. However, there is the possibility 
that the track is just simply missing as was already pointed out, but then I'm 
left wondering why it's simply missing; I'm guilty of begging the question if 
that is a likely explanation.
   
 
  What I've been trying to find is a bird's eye view of the trackway so I can 
see how far the supposed skip/hop was. I'm thinking that if this animal could 
hop nearly an entire stride length on one leg it should have also been able to 
double or tripping its stride while running, which would put it somewhere 
between 20 and 30 mph (unless my math is way off).
 
 
>>"do we have fossilized
>> tracks that show ANY animal running, or breaking into a
>> run?"
 
I was under the impression that there is at least one case at Glen Rose, and 
another example that may be a "dino stampede"
 
 
Sim Koning

 
 
  
 
   

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> Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2010 00:43:20 -0800
> From: erikboehm07@yahoo.com
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu; pristichampsus@yahoo.com
> Subject: Re: Lack of Running Giant Theropod Tracks
>
> Aren't there some trackways of humans running in Australia, that supposedly 
> show ancient shoeless aboriginees, on uneven ground, could almost match the 
> speed of Usain Bolt running in the Olympics?
>
> --- On Fri, 11/26/10, Jura wrote:
>
> > From: Jura 
> > Subject: Re: Lack of Running Giant Theropod Tracks
> > To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> > Date: Friday, November 26, 2010, 8:58 PM
> > The first question that came to mind
> > when I read this subject line was: "do we have fossilized
> > tracks that show ANY animal running, or breaking into a
> > run?"
> >
> > I honestly don't know, but that would be the first place I
> > would look. If running trackways are rare (and I think they
> > probably are) then they probably tell us more about the
> > ecological conditions that preserve trackways (as Dr. Holtz
> > alluded to) and less about the actual capabilities of the
> > animals making them.
> >
> > Jason
> >
> >
> > --- On Fri, 11/26/10, Sim Koning 
> > wrote:
> >
> > > From: Sim Koning 
> > > Subject: Lack of Running Giant Theropod Tracks
> > > To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> > > Date: Friday, November 26, 2010, 5:00 PM
> > >
> > >
> > > Unless I missed a major discovery somewhere, we
> > have
> > > yet to find a trackway that proves that giant
> > theropods
> > > could run. What about the Paluxy River
> > > Acrocanthosaur/allosaurid trackway that is "missing"
> > a
> > > footprint on one side? It is ulikely that the Acro
> > was
> > > hanging onto the side of the sauropod, since there is
> > no
> > > change in the sauropod's gate, and there is no
> > distortion in
> > > the "hopping" print as one might expect. If the
> > > Acrocanthosaur (or similar allosauroid) was "skipping"
> > to
> > > keep pace, that would mean this huge animal hopped on
> > one
> > > foot (both feet were in the air at one point). Doesn't
> > this
> > > trackway then demonstrate that at least this theropod
> > had
> > > leg muscles strong enough to propel it into an arial
> > phase
> > > in its stride and was therefore capable of running?
> > How long
> > > was the hop le
> Couldn't you use the "hop" length
> > to
> > > calculate the force needed to propel a 4 to 6 tonne
> > animal
> > > through the air (on one foot) for that distance and
> > then use
> > > that data to help calculate potential run speed? I'm
> > sorry
> > > if this has been brought up already. I checked the
> > list and
> > > couldn't find much on this subject beyond paper
> > requests.
> > >
> > > Simeon Koning
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>