When it comes to dinosaurs, was Orwell right?

CORDIScovery – unearthing the hottest topics in EU science, research and innovation

In his novel Animal Farm, Orwell’s character claims: “Four legsgood, two legs bad.” Would the tyrannosaurs agree? Or did bipedalism give them an evolutionary advantage?

Examining how birds, crocodiles and other animals move can tell us about the biomechanics of extinct animals, and the impact that had on their survival.

Beyond moving, the way in which dinosaurs interacted with their environment shaped the world around them. The co-evolution of species and ecology over deep time offers insights about modern ecosystems, so what can welearn from a long-vanished world?

John Hutchinson is a fellow of the Royal Society and a leaderin the field of evolutionary biomechanics. Davide Foffa is a postdoctoral researcher in palaeobiology at the University of Birmingham. He uses palaeontological data to understand the origins and evolution of ecosystemsthrough major evolutionary events such as mass extinctions.

Sara Varela is a palaeoecologist at the faculty of biology at the University of Vigo, in Spain. She considers the relationship between climate and life on Earth, and how past climate changes affected the geographic ranges and evolutionary pathways of species.