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EDIT: This is why doing research on your own sucks: I spent hours looking for articles about locomotion in dinosaurs and specifically Marasuchus and its ilk. I couldn't get a single definitive answer other than that we really don't know. Just now, while looking up Basilisk lizard skeletons, I stumbled across an article saying that the animal did more than likely walk on all fours and run on two legs. Personally, the only way I can picture all fours is if it moved like a squirrel or rabbit, then sprinted like hell on two legs to escape predators, sorta like Basilisk lizards run on water for short distances. I bought a paleontology textbook not too long ago, and it strongly suggests that Marasuchus was simply not built with the same sort of speed and power that its therapod descendants possessed.

The article is really interesting, by the way. It suggests that powerful tail muscles found in reptiles helped their dino descendants rise onto two feet, which is really interesting when you consider that a dinosaur's pelvis is essentially a big fulcrum. Okay, that's very over-simplified explanation, but it helps me in several scenes, such as when dealing with a character who has suffered permanent damage to the base of his tail (showing why the classic tail-dragging vision of the dinosaur can't work).

I am decidedly not a dedicated scientist. Just a scifi writer with a lifelong passion for dinosaurs who needs straight facts, and I lose a lot of revision time looking for them!

* * * * * Original * * * * *

Somewhere in the process of revisions and chapter do-overs, I needed a reference. At first glance, Marasuchus doesn't look much like it's original name sake, Lagosuchus--or "rabbit croc". Despite the old name, it usually gets treated to some pretty awkward poses that, in my opinion, don't always seem to fit its lanky legs. It's status as a biped or quadruped is up in the air, so many depictions seem to either favor the biped or fall somewhere unfavorably in the middle.

It's the feet that get me. They don't look like sprinting feet to me. I don't have access to a real skeleton, so this is the next best thing.

I needed to test this for myself, since I'm writing about one. Even if mine does take a few artistic licenses, he does still need to be pretty accurate for the purposes of the story. I wasn't actually expecting the rabbit to be a good reference for this, but it actually worked out pretty well. The other skeleton is a squirrel.

The photos are from Google (at least one is from Pinterest). I took the photo of a Marasuchus skeleton, isolated it, ran some filters over it, cut it into sections, badly labeled them, and was going to do a 2D rig, but I don't have time or patience right now to learn how to do one, so I moved the pieces around in Photoshop. That's why I'm uploading it this way, because it's really not all my art. Just a manipulatable reference file I made for my own use.

What do you think? What changes would you suggest? I think I'm going to try a sitting pose, next.

Description
EDIT: This is why doing research on your own sucks: I spent hours looking for articles about locomotion in dinosaurs and specifically Marasuchus and its ilk. I couldn't get a single definitive answer other than that we really don't know. Just now, while looking up Basilisk lizard skeletons, I stumbled across an article saying that the animal did more than likely walk on all fours and run on two legs. Personally, the only way I can picture all fours is if it moved like a squirrel or rabbit, then sprinted like hell on two legs to escape predators, sorta like Basilisk lizards run on water for short distances. I bought a paleontology textbook not too long ago, and it strongly suggests that Marasuchus was simply not built with the same sort of speed and power that its therapod descendants possessed.

The article is really interesting, by the way. It suggests that powerful tail muscles found in reptiles helped their dino descendants rise onto two feet, which is really interesting when you consider that a dinosaur's pelvis is essentially a big fulcrum. Okay, that's very over-simplified explanation, but it helps me in several scenes, such as when dealing with a character who has suffered permanent damage to the base of his tail (showing why the classic tail-dragging vision of the dinosaur can't work).

I am decidedly not a dedicated scientist. Just a scifi writer with a lifelong passion for dinosaurs who needs straight facts, and I lose a lot of revision time looking for them!

* * * * * Original * * * * *

Somewhere in the process of revisions and chapter do-overs, I needed a reference. At first glance, Marasuchus doesn't look much like it's original name sake, Lagosuchus--or "rabbit croc". Despite the old name, it usually gets treated to some pretty awkward poses that, in my opinion, don't always seem to fit its lanky legs. It's status as a biped or quadruped is up in the air, so many depictions seem to either favor the biped or fall somewhere unfavorably in the middle.

It's the feet that get me. They don't look like sprinting feet to me. I don't have access to a real skeleton, so this is the next best thing.

I needed to test this for myself, since I'm writing about one. Even if mine does take a few artistic licenses, he does still need to be pretty accurate for the purposes of the story. I wasn't actually expecting the rabbit to be a good reference for this, but it actually worked out pretty well. The other skeleton is a squirrel.

The photos are from Google (at least one is from Pinterest). I took the photo of a Marasuchus skeleton, isolated it, ran some filters over it, cut it into sections, badly labeled them, and was going to do a 2D rig, but I don't have time or patience right now to learn how to do one, so I moved the pieces around in Photoshop. That's why I'm uploading it this way, because it's really not all my art. Just a manipulatable reference file I made for my own use.

What do you think? What changes would you suggest? I think I'm going to try a sitting pose, next.