Using crocodilian tails as models for dinosaur tails
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Paleontology, Zoology
- Keywords
- tail musculature, Crocodylus, Alligator, m. caudofemoralis, muscle volumes, range of motion
- Copyright
- © 2015 Mallison et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2015. Using crocodilian tails as models for dinosaur tails. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e1339v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1339v1
Abstract
The tails of extant crocodilians are anatomically the closest approximation of the tails of non-avian dinosaurs, and therefore a good starting point for any reconstruction of non-avian dinosaur tail muscles. However, we here demonstrate some methodological problems using crocodile tails, firstly regarding the general reconstruction of tail mobility from osteology, secondly for the reconstruction of tail musculature for the quantification of muscle forces, especially the m. caudofemoralis longus, and thirdly with respect to the anatomical differences between crocodilians and non-avian dinosaurs, especially in relation to the reconstruction of m. caudofemoralis brevis. Our results show that, given the current limited knowledge of crocodilian tails, volumetric reconstructions should be created on the basis of more gross morphological data than is usually used, and that biomechanical studies should include sensitivity analysis with greater parameter ranges than often applied.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.