POWER OF THE ANCIENTS DINO FREE

'It also makes the distance a predator has to reach in to grab you that much shorter,' says persons. Muscular back legs and tails likely made it more difficult to maneuver in the narrow confines of a burrow. In order to dig, mammals had strong front limbs. It seems to have happened back in the Permian period, over 252 million years ago.'Īt that time the mammalian lineage was adapting to dig and to live in burrows. 'Looking across the fossil record, we can trace when our proto-mammal ancestors actually lost those muscles. 'Largely because mammals don't have those big tail-based leg muscles,' Persons explains. Rather than using their hands to grapple with prey, it is more likely they seized their meals with their powerful jaws.'īut, if it is true that bipedalism can evolve to help animals run fast, why aren't mammals like horses and cheetahs bipedal? 'Many ancient bipedal dinosaurs were herbivores, and even early carnivorous dinosaurs evolved small forearms. 'Those explanations don't stand up,' says Persons.

POWER OF THE ANCIENTS DINO FREE

The research, conducted by Persons and Phil Currie, paleontologist and Canada Research Chair, also debunks theories that early proto-dinosaurs stood on two legs for the sole purpose of free their hands for use in catching prey. Eventually, some proto-dinosaurs gave up quadrupedal walking altogether. Adaptations like hind limb elongation allowed ancient dinosaurs to run faster, while smaller forelimbs helped to reduce body weight and improve balance.

Over time, proto-dinosaurs evolved to run faster and for longer distances. We see a similar effect in many modern lizards that rise up and run bipedally.' 'Having this muscle mass provided the strength and power required for early dinosaurs to stand on and move with their two back feet. 'The tails of proto-dinosaurs had big, leg-powering muscles,' says Persons. The trick to this evolution is in their tails explains Scott Persons, postdoctoral fellow and lead author on the paper. Bipedalism in dinosaurs was inherited from ancient and much smaller proto-dinosaurs.

Power of the ancients dino