ArticleScience advances2021
The evolution of pelvic limb muscle moment arms in bird-line archosaurs.
Article in Science advances, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed.
- Muscle architecture in mustelid mammals: anatomical proxies for muscle function and their relation to locomotor habit.BMC ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Powerful or non-powerful? Revisiting hallucal grasping as a key evolutionary innovation in small arboreal mammals.iScience · 2026Article
- The pectoralis muscle orientation as an indicator of the modes of wing-propelled locomotion in birds.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- Functional morphology and biomechanics of the locomotor apparatus in the large Late Triassic carnivore Postosuchus kirkpatricki (Archosauria: Rauisuchidae).Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- Hindlimb functional morphology and locomotor biomechanics of the small Late Triassic pseudosuchian reptile Gracilisuchus stipanicicorum (Archosauria: Gracilisuchidae).Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- Biomechanics of raptorial dorsiflexion and tensile material properties of the m. tibialis cranialis tendon in the hindlimbs of hawks and owls.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Joint function in marmosets and tamarins: Insights from computational modeling of hip extensor muscles.Journal of anatomy · 2025Article
- Forelimb biomechanics in the derived therizinosaur Nothronychus and its relation to the origin of the avian wing.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Hindlimb biomechanics of Lagosuchus talampayensis (Archosauria, Dinosauriformes), with comments on skeletal morphology.Journal of anatomy · 2025Article
- Biomechanical modeling of musculoskeletal function related to the terrestrial locomotion of Riojasuchus tenuisceps (Archosauria: Ornithosuchidae).Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2025Article
- Reconstructing dinosaur locomotion.Biology letters · 2025Review
- Hindlimb kinematics, kinetics and muscle dynamics during sit-to-stand and sit-to-walk transitions in emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae).The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Testing the form-function paradigm: body shape correlates with kinematics but not energetics in selectively-bred birds.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Forelimb muscle activation patterns in American alligators: Insights into the evolution of limb posture and powered flight in archosaurs.Journal of anatomy · 2024Article
- The evolution of femoral morphology in giant non-avian theropod dinosaurs.Paleobiology · 2024Article
- Hindlimb and pelvic anatomy of Caiman yacare (Archosauria, Pseudosuchia): Myology and osteological correlates with emphasis on lower leg and autopodial musculature.Journal of anatomy · 2024Article
- Reconstruction of the pelvic girdle and hindlimb musculature of the early tetanurans Piatnitzkysauridae (Theropoda, Megalosauroidea).Journal of anatomy · 2024Article
- Articular surface interactions distinguish dinosaurian locomotor joint poses.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Locomotion and the early Mesozoic success of Archosauromorpha.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
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3 authors.
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Abstract
Bipedal locomotion evolved along the archosaurian lineage to birds, shifting from "hip-based" to "knee-based" mechanisms. However, the roles of individual muscles in these changes and their evolutionary timings remain obscure. Using 13 three-dimensional musculoskeletal models of the hindlimbs of bird-line archosaurs, we quantify how the moment arms (i.e., leverages) of 35 locomotor muscles evolved. Our results support two hypotheses: From early theropod dinosaurs to birds, knee flexors' moment arms decreased relative to knee extensors', and medial long-axis rotator moment arms for the hip increased (trading off with decreased hip abductor moment arms). Our results reveal how, from the Triassic Period, bipedal theropod dinosaurs gradually modified their hindlimb form and function, shifting more from hip-based to knee-based locomotion and hip-abductor to hip-rotator balancing mechanisms inherited by birds. Yet, we also discover unexpected ancestral specializations in larger Jurassic theropods, lost later in the bird-line, complicating the paradigm of gradual transformation.
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