The unique artistic talents of Darren Naish: sauropods as agile, cursorial bipeds
April 8, 2016
Building on the pioneering work of Karbek (2002), Darren Naish (circa 2004) conceived a theory of sauropod locomotion that has not been as widely accepted as he might have hoped. Sadly, other projects captured Naish’s attention, and his interest in writing up his theory waned. All that now remains of this sadly unpublished work is this speculative life restoration:
We can only lament the loss of this unique perspective to science.
References
- Karbek., T. R. 2002. The case for Stegosaurus as an agile, cursorial biped. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22(Suppl. to 3):73A.
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
April 8, 2016 at 8:50 am
All the trackways of sauropods I’ve seen indicate a very slow moving pace and the herd formations of individuals of various sizes.
April 8, 2016 at 11:28 am
reminds one of “the terrible thunderlizards” cartoon
April 8, 2016 at 4:29 pm
More than Naish has worked on this. I believe Ford is trying to put out a paper on his ideas . I think there are others as well. Haven’t seen a single paper yet. Would be a very interesting read though.
April 8, 2016 at 5:25 pm
I believe Bakker has said he has some trackways which suggest sauropods could be agile bipeds….as human-sized juveniles or so. Again, nothing has been published on it, so I’d take it with a grain of salt.
April 9, 2016 at 3:19 pm
And don’t forget that Jensen’s (1988) description of Cathetosaurus lewisi suggested that various osteological features indicated that it was bipedal, or at least a very habitual rearer. And to be fair, I’ve yet to see a better explanation, or really any other explanation, for that crazy forward-tilted pelvis.
References
Jensen, James A. 1988. A fourth new sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic of the Colorado Plateau and sauropod bipedalism. Great Basin Naturalist 48(2):121-145.