Constraint-Based Exclusion of Limb Poses for Reconstructing Theropod Dinosaur Locomotion
By Stephen M. Gatesy, M. Bäker, John R. Hutchinson. 2009
96 citations recorded by the source corpus.
ABSTRACT Plausible poses were identified for the hind limb of Tyrannosaurus rex and three other non-avian theropod dinosaurs at mid-stance of locomotion using constraint-based exclusion. This new method, validated by analysis of two species of birds, involves applying demonstrably realistic geometric and kinetic (force-based) constraints from extant animals to exclude, rather than include, potential poses. Starting with a “configuration space” of millions of candidate poses, we used a step-wise series of criteria to constrict the volume to a small subset of solutions, which can serve as starting points for reconstructing complete stride cycles. It was found that the maximum relative mid-stance limb force, as well as the relative number of configurations at lower forces, decreased with increasing body size. Constraint-based exclusion restricted Tyrannosaurus to a narrow region of neither very columnar nor very flexed poses that may have allowed relatively slow running, but no reasonable combinations of input parameters and pose produce forces large enough for high speeds. This analysis shows that skeletal information alone has limited value for discerning mid-stance poses. Despite additional assumptions, unpreserved parameters such as masses, forces, and moments are required to study a fossil as a functioning animal, rather than as a moving set of bones. Constraint-based exclusion is a transparent, reproducible framework for evaluating functional hypotheses in dinosaurs and other taxa.
Subfields: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Paleontology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/06a2bc21d9b25ba76ee6481c5cfdc0a329619bf2
How researchers see this paper
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In Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
In Paleontology
- Peter J. Bishop
- Andrew R. Cuff
- John R. Hutchinson
- S. Nesbitt
- M. Wedel
- A. Otero
- Paul M. Barrett
- S. Maidment
Citations in the corpus
- How to build a dinosaur: Musculoskeletal modeling and simulation of locomotor biomechanics in extinct animals (2020, methodology): “…evidence drawn from muscle anatomy and leverage, bone structure (external or internal), and basic biomechanical principles to further “whittle down” probable limb pose space (see “Musculoskeletal Simulation and Hypothesis Testing”; Hutchinson et al. 2005; Gatesy et al. 2009; Bishop et al. 2018c).”