Two studies have recently been published that have sparked a debate within the paleontological community. The first official document claims that the long tails of some herbivorous dinosaurs (such as sauropods) were capable of breaking the sound barrier like a whip, while a second study denies the assertion.
The latter, published in the magazine Scientific Reportscontradicts the idea that these dinosaurs were capable of snapping their tails at the same speed of sound (about 1,225 km/h at sea level). Instead, the true speed of their tails was scaled down: it would be closer to that of a motor vehicle.
Scientists examined the fossils of five separate diplodocids (a family of herbivorous dinosaurs belonging to the sauropods) and created a digital model of a tail using measurements taken on the remains. The model’s tail measured approximately 12 meters in length, weighed 1,446 kilograms and contained 82 vertebrae.
There are few specimens available (two) to take the data. “After we did that, we created a model and tried to replicate the other study’s speed of sound resultsSimone Conti, the study’s lead author and a doctoral student studying aerospace engineering and paleobiology at the NOVA School of Science and Technology in Portugal, told LiveScience.
In the simulation, instead of breaking the sound barrier, the tail of the computer model crumbled due to speed. For this reason they argue that it could never have reached a similar speed. “In aerospace engineering, it is common to test airplane parts to see how much stress the structures can withstand. We wanted to test the same approach but on organic materials from animals. It is not common to see aerospace engineering and paleontology working together”, finally says Conti.
By the way, why were herbivorous dinosaurs so big?
