How sauropods may have walked

[CarnotaurusKing]

Paleontologists at Liverpool John Moores University have studied the trackways of sauropods, and suggested that they may have had a diagonal pattern of walking, like hippos, unlikes the more elephant-like gait that's often used for sauropods.

https://www.science.org/content/article/how-did-one-world-s-biggest-dinosaurs-walk-footprints-offer-clues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19cN-bLh8Vk

Reminds me of the way the Diplodocus from Walking with Dinosaurs was animated. Ahead of its time in that regard.

A while back, I said the elephant-gait looked more natural on the Safari Ltd-New for 2022 thread. As usual, I've been proven wrong 

[stargatedalek]

This makes sense, as this gate is used by all living quadrupeds outside mammals.

[Halichoeres]

Big fan of the video abstract! Very accessible way to sum up the paper for us non-experts.

[andrewsaurus rex]

i'm glad for the video too.  I must confess I had to watch it a few times before I understood how the gait differs.

[bmathison1972]

Didn't Was (Not Was) solve this back in 1987?

[stargatedalek]

Didn't Was (Not Was) solve this back in 1987?

I wasn't aware this was under question either until this was posted. Apparently people thought they walked like elephants?

[Dinofanboy]

Thank you for sharing. This video is very interesting !

[CARN0TAURUS]

This is all very interesting.  If I would've been looking at this myself, I might've also erroneously concluded that they most likely walked like elephants.  I say this because elephants distribute their weight on three legs at all times while walking.  It makes sense that a large animal would need to do this in order to increase flotation on softer surfaces by reducing the PSI at point of contact.  A logical conclusion would always be that having three legs on the ground while the fourth kicks forward reduces the stress on the bones, feet, and ground.  This would be even more important on an animal that weighed 40-70 tons!  I believe elephants live much longer lives than scientist have concluded that sauropods did, correct?  So taking longevity into account, it also makes sense that elephants may have evolved to put the least amount of wear and tear on their legs and feet by lowering the PSI and distributing it's weight more efficiently while walking.  The longterm benefit is reduced impact on joints which would reduced the effects of arthritis over a longer life span.  Another benefit is change of direction, elephants can reduce their turning radius because their hind legs will not trip over each other rotating in place, horses do this too.  With diagonal walking the animal has to turn in a bigger circle or risk falling over.

[stargatedalek]

This is all very interesting.  If I would've been looking at this myself, I might've also erroneously concluded that they most likely walked like elephants.  I say this because elephants distribute their weight on three legs at all times while walking.  It makes sense that a large animal would need to do this in order to increase flotation on softer surfaces by reducing the PSI at point of contact.  A logical conclusion would always be that having three legs on the ground while the fourth kicks forward reduces the stress on the bones, feet, and ground.  This would be even more important on an animal that weighed 40-70 tons!  I believe elephants live much longer lives than scientist have concluded that sauropods did, correct?  So taking longevity into account, it also makes sense that elephants may have evolved to put the least amount of wear and tear on their legs and feet by lowering the PSI and distributing it's weight more efficiently while walking.  The longterm benefit is reduced impact on joints which would reduced the effects of arthritis over a longer life span.  Another benefit is change of direction, elephants can reduce their turning radius because their hind legs will not trip over each other rotating in place, horses do this too.  With diagonal walking the animal has to turn in a bigger circle or risk falling over.

Elephants walk with two feet at once, but both on the same side. Unless I'm misunderstanding something important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FrlxtgDKR4

[Bowhead Whale]

This makes sense, as this gate is used by all living quadrupeds outside mammals.

Almost all mammals walk by diagonals. Only a few use the ambling style while walking: camelids, giraffes, gnus, bears. But horses, canids, felids, even humans (we move the right arm while moving forwards the left leg and on) all walk diagonally. So, it is not true that all mammals malk at ambling style while walking and don't walk diagonally.