Dino speed paper

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

Here is the ref:

Sellars, W.I. & P.L. Manning. 2007. Estimating dinosaur maximum running
speeds using evolutionary robotic. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
FirstCite Early Online Publishing. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.0846

Values in the paper are in ms^-1: the conversion to km/h was for the press
(and will be switched to mph when the American press gets it).

Here's the abstract:
Abstract

Maximum running speed is an important locomotor parameter for many
animals--predators as well as prey--and is thus of interest to
palaeobiologists wishing to reconstruct the behavioural ecology of extinct
species. A variety of approaches have been tried in the past including
anatomical comparisons, bone scaling and strength, safety factors and ground
reaction force analyses. However, these approaches are all indirect and an
alternative approach is to create a musculoskeletal model of the animal and
see how fast it can run. The major advantage of this approach is that all
assumptions about the animal's morphology and physiology are directly
addressed, whereas the exact same assumptions are hidden in the indirect
approaches. In this paper, we present simple musculoskeletal models of three
extant and five extinct bipedal species. The models predict top speed in the
extant species with reasonably good agreement with accepted values, so we
conclude that the values presented for the five extinct species are
reasonable predictions given the modelling assumptions made. Improved
musculoskeletal models and better estimates of soft tissue parameters will
produce more accurate values. Limited sensitivity analysis is performed on
key muscle parameters but there is considerable scope for extending this in
the future. 

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
Fax: 301-405-0796

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
                        Building 237, Room 1117
                        University of Maryland
                        College Park, MD 20742 USA