How fast did dinosaurs really go? Birds walking in mud provide new clues
Tracks of dinosaur footprints can hint at how fast the extinct animals moved. Here’s how guinea fowl can help fact-check those assumptions.
Citations
T.L. Prescott et al. Tempo from fossil trackways: calculations now not validated by extant birds on compliant substrates. Biology Letters. Published online June 25, 2025. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0191.
R.M. Alexander. Estimates of speeds of dinosaurs. Nature. Vol. 261, May 13, 1976, p.129. doi:10.1038/261129a0
S.M. Gatesy and A.A. Biewener. Bipedal locomotion: Effects of velocity, size and limb posture in birds and humans. Journal of Zoology. Vol. 224, May 1991, p. 127. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1991.tb04794.x.
P.L. Falkingham and S.M. Gatesy. The delivery of a dinosaur footprint: Subsurface 3D wander reconstruction and discrete ingredient simulation existing note ontogeny. Proceedings of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences. Vol.111, December 23, 2014, p. 18279. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1416252111.
Sofia Caetano Avritzer is the 2025 AAAS Mass Media Fellow with Science News. She has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from The Rockefeller College, the save she studied how fruit flies pass their eyes and navigate the enviornment.
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