The body mass-maximum speed relationship and the athletic capability of giant proboscideans and sauropods

Estimating the maximum speed capability (athletic capability) of very large fossil animals is challenging. While large animals have limbs favoring longer stride lengths and higher speeds, their body mass imposes limitations on bones, joints, available forces, and physiology, resulting in the fastest...

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Autores: Ruiz Pérez, Javier, Romilio, Anthony, Saarinen, Juha, Torices Hernández, Angélica, Jiménez Arenas, Juan Manuel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/131056
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/131056
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:567/569
Paleontología
2416.05 Paleontología de Los Vertebrados
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spelling The body mass-maximum speed relationship and the athletic capability of giant proboscideans and sauropodsRuiz Pérez, JavierRomilio, AnthonySaarinen, JuhaTorices Hernández, AngélicaJiménez Arenas, Juan Manuel567/569Paleontología2416.05 Paleontología de Los VertebradosEstimating the maximum speed capability (athletic capability) of very large fossil animals is challenging. While large animals have limbs favoring longer stride lengths and higher speeds, their body mass imposes limitations on bones, joints, available forces, and physiology, resulting in the fastest animals not being the largest. Here we use the well-known relationship between body mass and potential maximum speed to calculate upper limits for the athletic capability of fossil giant proboscideans and sauropods. First, we assess the reliability of two different fits to maximum speed data for mammals. Subsequently, we analyze masses and speeds of live proboscideans, finding they consistently move below the lower bounds predicted by model fits. Finally, we propose maximum speed for representative fossil proboscideans and sauropods. Although calculated maximum speeds for larger proboscideans are comparatively lower, there is substantial overlap with those observed in live proboscideans. For the largest sauropods approaching or exceeding 50 Tn our calculated maximum speeds are around 10 km/h or lower. These findings suggest that immense body size and graviportal structure of sauropods were key factors likely restricting their locomotion to a single, steady gait, consistent with fossil trackway evidence.Nature PublishingUniversidad Complutense de Madrid20252025-12-2520252025-12-25journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/131056reponame:Docta Complutenseinstname:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)Inglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/1310562026-06-02T12:44:21Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv The body mass-maximum speed relationship and the athletic capability of giant proboscideans and sauropods
title The body mass-maximum speed relationship and the athletic capability of giant proboscideans and sauropods
spellingShingle The body mass-maximum speed relationship and the athletic capability of giant proboscideans and sauropods
Ruiz Pérez, Javier
567/569
Paleontología
2416.05 Paleontología de Los Vertebrados
title_short The body mass-maximum speed relationship and the athletic capability of giant proboscideans and sauropods
title_full The body mass-maximum speed relationship and the athletic capability of giant proboscideans and sauropods
title_fullStr The body mass-maximum speed relationship and the athletic capability of giant proboscideans and sauropods
title_full_unstemmed The body mass-maximum speed relationship and the athletic capability of giant proboscideans and sauropods
title_sort The body mass-maximum speed relationship and the athletic capability of giant proboscideans and sauropods
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Ruiz Pérez, Javier
Romilio, Anthony
Saarinen, Juha
Torices Hernández, Angélica
Jiménez Arenas, Juan Manuel
author Ruiz Pérez, Javier
author_facet Ruiz Pérez, Javier
Romilio, Anthony
Saarinen, Juha
Torices Hernández, Angélica
Jiménez Arenas, Juan Manuel
author_role author
author2 Romilio, Anthony
Saarinen, Juha
Torices Hernández, Angélica
Jiménez Arenas, Juan Manuel
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Universidad Complutense de Madrid
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv 567/569
Paleontología
2416.05 Paleontología de Los Vertebrados
topic 567/569
Paleontología
2416.05 Paleontología de Los Vertebrados
description Estimating the maximum speed capability (athletic capability) of very large fossil animals is challenging. While large animals have limbs favoring longer stride lengths and higher speeds, their body mass imposes limitations on bones, joints, available forces, and physiology, resulting in the fastest animals not being the largest. Here we use the well-known relationship between body mass and potential maximum speed to calculate upper limits for the athletic capability of fossil giant proboscideans and sauropods. First, we assess the reliability of two different fits to maximum speed data for mammals. Subsequently, we analyze masses and speeds of live proboscideans, finding they consistently move below the lower bounds predicted by model fits. Finally, we propose maximum speed for representative fossil proboscideans and sauropods. Although calculated maximum speeds for larger proboscideans are comparatively lower, there is substantial overlap with those observed in live proboscideans. For the largest sauropods approaching or exceeding 50 Tn our calculated maximum speeds are around 10 km/h or lower. These findings suggest that immense body size and graviportal structure of sauropods were key factors likely restricting their locomotion to a single, steady gait, consistent with fossil trackway evidence.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
2025-12-25
2025
2025-12-25
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/131056
url https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/131056
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Nature Publishing
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Nature Publishing
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Docta Complutense
instname:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
instname_str Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
reponame_str Docta Complutense
collection Docta Complutense
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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