Oh yes. It must be said when they first started hopping I think he was concerned his entire scientific reputation was about to dissolve into tatters. He was somewhat relieved, I think, when it turned out to be something of a minority activity for hadrosaur simulations and the loading information came back saying it wasn't a terribly sensible gait.
I'd be surprised some dinosaurs (or other reptiles) hadn't developed hopping as way of getting about at some time. It works very well for the kangaroos and wallabies, and it would be odd if mammals came up with it first.
Indeed but the paleontological (and biomechanical) community remains very suspicious of the kind of simulation techniques B. uses. Trying to convince them of hopping hadrosaurs on top of that could well have been difficult.
If you watch wallabies, they rarely hop at speed, but they do amble around with a sort of slow hop rather than walk. If you look at the way the hadrosaurs' front legs are, it seems to me that it would be perfectly logical for them to do this too.
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Ah, I might have known he was responsible for the hopping hadrosaurs, which I noticed in passing.
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