Observatoire des droits humains (anglais seulement)

The revolution in dinosaur science started 50 years ago – here’s what we have learned

(Version anglaise seulement)

par Michael J. Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of Bristol
Emily Rayfield, Professor of Palaeobiology, University of Bristol

The study of dinosaurs has been through a revolution in recent decades. The story began half a century ago, when Robert McNeill Alexander, a professor of zoology at the University of Leeds, showed how the speed of an animal could be calculated from the spacing of its footprints and its body size.

This formula worked both for modern and extinct animals and so, for the first time, the speed of a dinosaur could be estimated from a fossilised trackway. Alexander calculated speeds for different dinosaurs of between…

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