Diplodocids – large herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and tails – may have been able to move their tails like bullwhips at speeds of up to 33 meters per second (108 feet per second) or more than 100 kilometers per hour (70 miles per hour). This is according to a modeling study published today (D
However, these findings contradict those of a previous study, which proposed that a hypothetical structure attached to the end of a diplodocid tail – similar to a tuft at the end of a bullwhip – could move faster than the speed of sound and create a small supersonic boom.
Simone Conti and colleagues simulated diplodocid tail movements using a model based on five fossilized diplodocid specimens. The model tail is over 12 meters long, weighs 1,446 kilograms , and consists of 82 cylinders – representing vertebrae – attached to an unmovable hip bone base.
The authors then assessed whether adding three different one-meter-long hypothetical structures – mimicking the end of a bullwhip – to the end of the model tail could allow it to travel at the speed of sound without rupturing. The first structure consisted of three segments made of skin and keratin, the second consisted of braided keratin filaments, and the third had a flail-like structure composed of soft tissues.
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