Evolution of the sauropod body plan, with special emphasis on limbs and girdles

蜥脚类恐龙是迄今为止地球上生活过的最大的陆地动物。人们在很大程度上仍然不知道为什么只有这些动物达到了如此巨大的比例，以及是什么使它们能够做到这一点。为了了解蜥脚类巨人症的起源和进化，详细了解它们的近亲和基本形式之间的相互关系是必不可少的。在分析基本蜥蜴类恐龙相互关系的框架内，也可以研究它们解剖的关键复合体的进化。支撑巨型蜥脚类动物质量的四肢和四肢腰带是这些关键复合体之一。因此，在本项目中，将分析基础蜥脚类动物的系统发育关系，包括“原蜥脚类”、基础兽足类和基础蜥脚类动物，并将使用来自各种蜥脚类类群的骨学数据与最近相关的肌学和骨学数据相结合，重建蜥脚类肢体的进化史。结合这个研究小组其他项目的数据，研究结果将被解释为确定可能的关键适应、预适应以及进化变化和身体大小之间的相关性，以提高我们对蜥脚类巨人症起源的理解。

Sauropod dinosaurs are by far the largest land living animals that ever lived on Earth. It is still largely unknown why only these animals attained such gigantic proportions and what enabled them to do so. To understand the origin and evolution of gigantism in sauropods, a detailed knowledge of the interrelationships of their closets relatives and basal forms is essential. Within the framework of an analysis of the interrelationships of basal saurischian dinosaurs, the evolution of key complexes of their anatomy can also be investigated. The limbs and limb girdles that had to support the mass of gigantic sauropods are one of these key complexes. Thus, in the present project, the phylogenetic relationships of basal saurischians, including "prosauropods", basal theropods, and basal sauropods, will be analysed and osteological data from a wide variety of saurischian taxa will be used in combination with myological and osteological data from Recent relatices to reconstruct the evolutionary history of sauropod limbs. In combination with data from other projects within this research group, the result will then be interpreted to identify possible "key adaptations", preadaptations, and correlations between evolutionary changes and body size to improve our understanding of the origin of sauropod gigantism.