Dinosaur Locomotion

Collected scientific visualization and animation works on how dinosaurs moved


Dinosaur Locomotion Exhibit

The following is a montage of clips from an exhibit I developed as part of an permanent interactive installation at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) a few years ago on dinosaur locomotion. Visitors to the museum can explore numerous stories about the latest research into dinosaur locomotion for Tyrannosaurus rex, Apatosaurus, and Triceratops dinosaurs.

The Godzilla Pose

One of the stories included in the CMNH exhibit shown above was the evolution of the Tyrannosaurus pose from its original position in the "Godzilla"style pose into the modern horizontal back pose. In this clip an overlay is added to the scene showing where the major muscle attachments were located around the hips and thighs of the Tyrannosaurus rex. The skeleton is then moved into the Godzilla pose to demonstrate how absurd this pose was from the point of view of the musculature.

The T. rex Strut

A few years after the CMNH exhibit my colleagues and I developed an updated walk cycle for the Tyrannosaurus rex, with further refinements to the locomotion, for permanent exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History (LAMNH). The walk cycle was also turned into the following clip for a story on Tyrannosaurus rex that aired on National Public Radio (NPR) with accompanying content on their website.