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Estimates of speeds of dinosaurs

Nature volume 261, pages 129–130 (1976)Cite this article

Abstract

THE faster an animal walks or runs the longer, in general, are its strides. Many dinosaur tracks have been found from which stride lengths can be measured1 .I have now obtained a relationship between speed, stride length and body size from observations of living animals and applied this to dinosaurs to achieve estimates of their speeds. The estimated speeds are rather low—between 1.0 and 3.6 m s−1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pure and Applied Zoology, The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    R. McN. ALEXANDER

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  1. R. McN. ALEXANDER
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ALEXANDER, R. Estimates of speeds of dinosaurs. Nature 261, 129–130 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/261129a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/261129a0

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