ArticleScience advances2022
Softening the steps to gigantism in sauropod dinosaurs through the evolution of a pedal pad.
Article in Science advances, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Built for bulk: posture, microanatomy and soft tissue shaped gigantism in Sauropoda.Royal Society open science · 2026Article
- The body mass-maximum speed relationship and the athletic capability of giant proboscideans and sauropods.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The complexity of tracking stegosaurs and their gregarious behavior.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Dynamic finite element modelling of the macaque mandible during a complete mastication gape cycle.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
How sauropod dinosaurs were able to withstand the forces associated with their immense size represents one of the most challenging biomechanical scenarios in the evolution of terrestrial tetrapods, but also one lacking robust biomechanical testing. Here, we use finite element analyses to quantify the biomechanical effects of foot skeletal postures with and without the presence of a soft tissue pad in sauropodomorphs. We find that none of the models can maintain bone stresses that fall within optimal bone safety factors in the absence of a soft tissue pad. Our findings suggest that a soft tissue pad in sauropods would have reduced bone stresses by combining the mechanical advantages of a functionally plantigrade foot with the plesiomorphic skeletally digitigrade saurischian condition. The acquisition of a developed soft tissue pad by the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic may represent one of the key adaptations for the evolution of gigantism that has become emblematic of these dinosaurs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.