Falkingham Peter L
School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
Biol Lett. 2025 Jan;21(1):20240441. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0441. Epub 2025 Jan 15.
Dinosaur locomotor biomechanics are of major interest. Locomotion of an animal affects many, if not most, aspects of life reconstruction, including behaviour, performance, ecology and appearance. Yet locomotion is one aspect of non-avian dinosaurs that we cannot directly observe. To shed light on how dinosaurs moved, we must draw from multiple sources of evidence. Extant taxa provide the basic principles of locomotion, bracket soft-tissue reconstructions and provide validation data for methods and hypotheses applied to dinosaurs. The skeletal evidence itself can be used directly to reconstruct posture, range of motion and mass (segment and whole-body). Building on skeletal reconstructions, musculoskeletal models inform muscle function and form the basis of simulations to test hypotheses of locomotor performance. Finally, fossilized footprints are our only direct record of motion and can provide important snapshots of extinct animals, shedding light on speed, gait and posture. Building confident reconstructions of dinosaur locomotion requires evidence from all four sources of information. This review explores recent work in these areas, with a methodological focus.
恐龙运动生物力学备受关注。动物的运动即便没有影响到生活重建的大部分方面，也会对许多方面产生影响，包括行为、表现、生态和外观。然而，运动是我们无法直接观察非鸟类恐龙的一个方面。为了阐明恐龙的移动方式，我们必须从多个证据来源进行推断。现存的分类群提供了运动的基本原理，为软组织重建提供了范围，并为应用于恐龙的方法和假设提供了验证数据。骨骼证据本身可直接用于重建姿势、运动范围和质量（身体部分和整体）。基于骨骼重建，肌肉骨骼模型可揭示肌肉功能，并构成测试运动表现假设的模拟基础。最后，化石足迹是我们对运动的唯一直接记录，能够提供已灭绝动物的重要瞬间，揭示其速度、步态和姿势。要建立可靠的恐龙运动重建，需要来自所有这四个信息来源的证据。本综述探讨了这些领域的最新研究工作，重点关注方法。
