Mud to muscles: Dinosaur-bird locomotor evolution from fossil footprints

泥土到肌肉：恐龙-鸟类从化石足迹的运动进化

• 批准号: EP/Y010159/1
• 负责人: Peter Falkingham
• 金额: $ 274.46万
• 依托单位: Liverpool John Moores University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY010159%2F1
• 关键词: Mud; muscles; Dinosaur; bird; locomotor

Fossil footprints are a direct record of motion in a way that skeletons can never be. I will use fossil footprints to explore the locomotor changes that took place as birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs. Compared to their dinosaur ancestors, birds have a much-reduced tail and associated musculature. Did birds "give up" terrestrial locomotor superiority in order to fly? Are evolutionary changes in limb motions recorded in the fossil footprint record? If so, do they show a gradual change from tail-driven theropods to knee-driven birds, or do limb motions change abruptly with the appearance of specific traits?From mud to muscles, I will combine advanced 3D imaging, physical experimentation, and computer simulation to bridge the existing gap between fossil footprints and fossil skeletons, shedding light on this important evolutionary transition. Lab-based footprint-making experiments will combine kinematic and kinetic analyses to build an unprecedented view of footprint formation. Limb motions of long-extinct dinosaurs will be reconstructed using fossil tracks, then supercomputer simulations modelling every grain of a sediment responding to the indenting foot will be used to test the reconstructed motions. These simulations will compute the forces occurring between foot and ground. These forces and motions will drive musculoskeletal biomechanical simulations that will shed light, not only on what the feet of dinosaurs were doing, but on how the whole limbs and even bodies of these enigmatic animals once moved.By sampling fossil tracks from around the world, spanning the 230 million years since theropods first appeared, this project will recover fossilised motions along the dinosaur-bird lineage. Using rigorous, innovative methods, my proposal will unlock quantitative analysis of the way extinct animals moved, facilitating direct comparison with their extant descendants, and providing a unique view of locomotor evolution that cannot be recovered from bones alone.

化石足迹是运动的直接记录，而骨骼永远不会。我将使用化石足迹探索随着鸟类恐龙的发展而发生的运动变化。与他们的恐龙祖先相比，鸟类的尾巴和相关的肌肉已大大减少。鸟类是否“放弃”陆地运动优势是为了飞行吗？化石足迹记录中的肢体运动的进化变化是否存在？ If so, do they show a gradual change from tail-driven theropods to knee-driven birds, or do limb motions change abruptly with the appearance of specific traits?From mud to muscles, I will combine advanced 3D imaging, physical experimentation, and computer simulation to bridge the existing gap between fossil footprints and fossil skeletons, shedding light on this important evolutionary transition.基于实验室的足迹实验将结合运动学和动力学分析，以建立空前的足迹形成视图。长灭绝恐龙的肢体运动将使用化石轨道重建，然后将使用对缩进脚做出响应的每种沉积物谷物进行建模的超级计算机模拟来测试重建的运动。这些模拟将计算脚和地面之间发生的力。这些力量和动作将驱动肌肉骨骼生物力学模拟，这不仅会脱光，这不仅是恐龙的脚在做什么，而且还依靠这些神秘动物的整个四肢，甚至是身体的尸体。通过对世界各地的化石轨道进行抽样，自从Theropods首先出现了这一项目，就可以恢复了餐具，从而占据了餐具的培训，这将恢复了餐饮动物，这将是跨越的。使用严格的创新方法，我的提议将解锁灭绝动物移动方式的定量分析，促进与现存的后代进行直接比较，并提供独特的运动进化视图，该观点无法单独从骨骼中回收。