Baby Dinosaurs Walked on Four Legs, According to New Research

A new study argues that dinosaurs from the Jurassic era used all of their limbs to move around during the early stages of development, and made the transition to two legs after they became mature.

The journey from quadrupedal to bipedal walking has been observed in the case of the sauropodomorph, which is a species of herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and a long tail, a remarkable encounter in the animal kingdom.

One of the researchers in who was involved in the study stated that humans and select dinosaur types are the only creatures capable of making such a transition. The researchers study the fossils of six specimens, which are a part of the Mussaurus patagonicus species. This task was facilitated by the fact that the fossils were in excellent condition and the age of the specimens varied from infant to adults.

Baby Dinosaurs Walked on Four Legs, According to New Research

The baby dinosaurs observed in the study lived almost two hundred million years ago in a region currently known as Patagonia, which can be found in southern Argentina. While an adult dinosaur weighted more than one tone, the baby can be quite small, as the skeleton can be held within the palms of a human.

In an attempt to learn more about the migration patterns of the M. patagonicus, the researchers worked together with other teams to craft advanced 3D scans of the anatomy of the dinosaurs during the different stages of life. They were able to calculate the mass of the creatures by estimating the possible weight of the muscles and soft tissues.

By studying the fossils, the researchers concluded that young M. patagonicus might have walked on all fours as the center of mass of their body appears to be quite forward. If they walked on two legs, they would have lost their balance regularly, and this seems to be highly unlikely. It is also thought that they didn’t crawl. The results of the study were published in a scientific journal.