The idea of any dinosaur , let alone the heavy of them , tiptoe around on " in high spirits heel " is almost too comical to be conceive . However , new inquiry suggests this was not only the case but possibly essential to their phenomenal size . Of course , these cad were inbuilt and more closely resembled track skid than stilettos , but we can enrapture in the imagery anyway .
The subject area is the attempt ofAndreas Jannel , a PhD student at the University of Queensland , to shape how great dinosaurs could walk given the immense forces they applied every time they put their foot down . Although some sauropod dinosaur grew even bigger , Jannel focused his research onRhoetosaurus brownei , which grew to 24 t as the only known Australian Jurassic Era sauropod dinosaur .
“ Looking at the bones of the foot , it was clearRhoetosauruswalked with an elevated bounder , raising the interrogation , how was its foundation able to back the Brobdingnagian mass of this beast ? ” Jannel say in astatement .
elephant have a cushion launch pad in their feet that stack away vigor as they walk , protect the bones from strain and making it easier to take the next step . Jannel guessed sauropods had something similar , so he produce replicas ofRhoetosaurus ' footbones to exploit out the use such a domiciliation might have played . His findings are published in theJournal of Morphology .
Jannel acknowledged to IFLScience the exact height of the cad cushioning is unknown . He also has yet to explain why this method only applied toRhoetosaurus ' back feet – the front limbs appear to have lay 2-dimensional on the footing . “ We presume they take more weight on their hind feet , ” he narrate IFLScience , but summate that the front feet would still have been carrying plenty .
researcher have n’t happen many complete sets of footbones for orotund sauropods – none forRheotosaurus ' contemporaries elsewhere in the reality , but Jannel has compared those we do have and used figurer and forcible models to fill in the gaps . By also examining their footprints , he conclude thatRhoetosauruswas not singular in this manner of walking , and indeed it was believably oecumenical among at least the larger members of the clade , evoke it may have made their big sizing possible .
“ There ’s so much more to sleep with , but it ’s amazing to give away that becoming ‘ high - heeled ’ might have been an significant step in the phylogeny of sauropod dinosaurs , ” hesaid .
The situation for other large dinosaurs , such as the big therapods that preyed on sauropod like these , is less clear . “ We can see in some fossils they had a type of cushioning , mayhap a little like an ostrich , ” Jannel told IFLScience , but the studies are less advanced .
