Dinosaur locomotion - a lecture by Professor John Hutchinson FRSB
An exclusive event for RSB members exploring the technological advancements in studying extinct animal movements.

Details

When? Wednesday 9 July 2025, 12:00 to 13:00
Members Only This is a members-only event
Where? Online
CPD Approved This event is approved for CPD

An exclusive event for RSB members exploring the technological advancements in studying extinct animal movements

Dinosaurs originated around 230 million years ago and gave rise to birds about 170 million years ago, which survived the mass extinction of other dinosaurs at the end of the Mesozoic Era. During this extensive history, dinosaurs evolved a wide diversity of body sizes, anatomies, and ways of moving, including transitions between quadrupedal and bipedal locomotion.

Dinosaurs left many fossil tracks that give general details about their locomotion, but what are the limits of what science can infer about how dinosaurs moved and how the way they moved evolved? These questions have fascinated Professor John Hutchinson FRSB throughout his 30 year career.

During this talk, he will outline his and others research on how living animals walk, run and jump as well as research developing methods to build digital models and simulations of dinosaurs in order to answer those questions. Attendees will see, for example, how giant dinosaurs like T. rex were not fast runners and how the functions of leg muscles changed as body shape changed from early dinosaurs to early birds.

About our speaker

Professor John Hutchinson FRSB did his education in the USA, training to be a biologist in Madison, Wisconsin and earning his doctorate in integrative biology in Berkeley, California, then spending a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in mechanical engineering in Stanford University, California. He then moved to the UK in 2023 to take his current position at the Royal Veterinary College as part of the Structure and Motion Laboratory, becoming a Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics in 2011. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2023, and is the current President of the International Society for Vertebrate Morphology.

Cost and booking

This event is free to attend and exclusively for RSB members (including paid membership applications awaiting election on 1 October). Spaces are limited so advance registration is essential through the link at the top of the page.

Special requirements

If you have accessibility requirements, please let us know during your booking using the additional information options, and we will do what we can to accommodate your needs.

Continued Professional Development

This event is approved by the Royal Society of Biology for the purposes of CPD and can be counted as 3 CPD points.

Contact

For event, booking and website queries, please contact Ellie Barrand at events@rsb.org.uk or on 020 3925 3444.

Code of Conduct

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Dinosaur locomotion - a lecture by Professor John Hutchinson FRSBAn exclusive event for RSB members exploring the technological advancements in studying extinct animal movements.