Scientists from the Polytechnic University of Milan discovered that diplodocid dinosaurs could move their tails at speeds of up to 33 meters per second (more than 100 kilometers per hour); this contradicts the results of a previous study which suggested a hypothetical construct at the extreme. a diplodocyte tail can move faster than the sound of speed (340 meters per second). The research was published in the journal scientific reports.
Diplodocytes are large herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and tails that they use to protect themselves from predators and/or fight their relatives. The authors modeled the movements of the dinosaur’s tail using data from five fossils. The tail of the model is more than 12 meters long, weighs 1446 kilograms and consists of 82 cylindrical vertebrae.
The maximum speed when moving the tail in an arc was 33 meters per second, which is ten times slower than the speed of sound.
Additionally, a diplodocyte’s tail would simply break off as it developed supersonic speed. The scientists repeated the simulation, but with structures at the end of the tail that a dinosaur might have had. The first structure consisted of skin and keratin segments, the second consisted of intertwined keratin filaments, and the third consisted of soft tissues. None of the designs helped the diplodosite’s tail withstand speeds of up to 340 meters per second.