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Palaeontology: How Plateosaurus trossingensis defended itself with its tail
For four years now, since 2021 to be precise, an extraordinary fossil has been on display at the Natural History Museum Vienna. It is the well-preserved remains of a Plateosaurus trossingensis. These were recovered in Frick, Switzerland. An international research team recently took a closer look at the anatomy of the tail of this early dinosaur. With surprising results. The herbivore could have used its tail as an effective weapon against carnivores, similar to today’s reptiles, researchers report in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
An inconspicuous tail with an amazing effect
Plateosaurus lived around 210 million years ago, in the late Triassic period. It was up to eight metres long. With its massive physique, it was one of the first large representatives of the dinosaurs. It was therefore an ancestor of the later sauropods. They were gigantic long-necked dinosaurs of the Jurassic period. It was also probably not a fast runner that could have fled in the event of danger.
Powerful, but not lightning fast: defence without supersonics
All the more interesting is the new finding that Plateosaurus apparently used its long, powerful tail as a striking weapon. During the scientific analysis of the Viennese fossil, one of the most complete preserved tail skeletons of a Plateosaurus, the researchers discovered that the animal could deliver blows of up to 1.6 kilojoules with the tip of its tail. The entire tail could even release a kinetic energy of up to 174 kilojoules. This is roughly equivalent to the impact of a sledgehammer. Enough to seriously injure or at least deter smaller or medium-sized predatory dinosaurs.
The behaviour of modern reptiles, such as the Asian banded monitor lizard or the green iguana, served as a model for the calculations. Both regularly use their tails for defence by delivering powerful blows. The researchers led by Ursula Göhlich from the Natural History Museum Vienna and Thomas Filek from the University of Vienna and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences therefore investigated the question of whether Plateosaurus could also have been capable of this defence strategy. And their results clearly speak in favour of it.
A direct comparison with another famous dinosaur makes the differences clear: Diplodocus, a giant sauropod from the late Jurassic period, had a particularly long, whip-like tail that could possibly be moved so quickly that it produced a sonic boom, an effect that can be ruled out in Plateosaurus due to its anatomical structure. But even without a sonic boom, a blow from Plateosaurus was probably quite effective.
This form of defence could have been a decisive survival strategy, especially for young animals that were not yet able to impress with their size. And there is also evidence of real encounters with predators: traces of a broken predator’s tooth were found in one of the bones of the Viennese fossil, a silent testimony to the prehistoric struggle for survival.
Research shows: Even supposedly defenceless herbivores such as Plateosaurus trossingensis had effective means of asserting themselves against enemies. An inconspicuous tail turns out to be a surprisingly effective weapon and sheds new light on the defensive behaviour of early dinosaurs.
