Beyond the bones

摘要

How did dinosaurs stand and move? Computer simulation and other methods have told us much about how dinosaurs did and did not move, but they have not yet reached their full potential. Ray Harryhausen, famous animator of creatures in such films as Jason and the Argonauts and The Valley of Gwangi, has written that "I found dinosaurs to be the ideal subject for stop-motion animation... The fact that nobody knew how those huge reptiles had moved or, for that matter, exactly how they looked meant that I could bring them alive without any fear of criticism". Harryhausen indeed showed that nothing brings an extinct animal to life more than seeing it move: But can walking and running dinosaurs be animated with scientific rigour rather than just artistic flair? Dinosaurs are excellent study organisms for researchers interested in such aspects of biomechanics as the repeated evolution of large size, shifts to and from bipedalism and quadrupedalism, and changes in joint structure, musculature and behaviour.