Walking with Dinosaurs: studying locomotion in Australian sauropods

Ada KlinkhamerPhD candidate

Supervisors:A/Prof Stephen WroeDr Paul McDonaldDr Stephen Poropat

Jurassic Park 3: 2001

How did sauropod dinosaurs move?

Diamantinasaurus matildae (‘Matilda’)

Hocknull et al. 2009PLoS One

You can’t move without muscles

CT and MRI scan of saltwater crocodile Digital dissection using Mimics software

Physical dissection of crocodile

SIMM (Software for Interactive Musculoskeletal Modelling)

Tyrannosaurus rexHutchinson et al. 2005

PaleobiologyOstrich

Hutchinson et al. 2015PeerJ

Digital data collection

What can this tell us?

• Mobility, speed and hind limb rearing

• Muscle forces – which muscles worked when during movement and how this affected the shape of ‘Matilda’s’ bones

• What kind of behaviours ‘Matilda’ regularly performed

Acknowledgements

• Armidale Radiology for CT and MRI scans on the saltwater crocodile

• Koorana Crocodile Farm (Rockhampton, QLD) for providing the crocodile specimen

• Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum (Winton, QLD) for access to sauropod material

• Mt Isa Hospital for CT scanning sauropod material

• David ‘Rex’ Mitchell for assistance with the crocodile gross dissection

Questions?