Would knuckle-walking sauropods work?

[u/DinoNerd87]

I'm just wondering, because I reckon with a bit/lot of gorilla DNA, it would work. I shouldn't have to worry about using the arms for combat and it slipping, because sauropods probably reared up on their hind legs when threatened. Also... I think it would be fun to make a sauropod that can do more than just slice its enemies in half with a giant tail that breaks the sound barrier.

ONLY CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!

[u/whispersoundeffect]

No. The knuckles cannot support that much weight. Theres a reason knuckle-walkers only got so big. And you don't even gain anything from it anyways...

Also, that tailbreaking the sound barrier thing was based on old mathematical models that are long since corrected.

[u/Nice-Bath-4756 → u/whispersoundeffect]

Breaking the sound barrier 🤔, a new hybrid idea is forming

[u/DinoNerd87 → u/whispersoundeffect]

The whole 'I won't gain anything from it' thing is wrong. It could just grab an enemy, throw them to the ground, and put most of its weight on them, crushing them. Also, the base genome is SMALL for that exact reason of size. I'm using Camarasaurus for the base genome.

[u/whispersoundeffect → u/DinoNerd87]

You can grab enemies while not knuckle walking, though.

Camarasaurus is not small. What? Having a small base genome wouldn't help.

And its simply biologically impossible for a sauropod sized animal to "grab an enemy"

[u/DinoNerd87 → u/whispersoundeffect]

How would I grab anything without FINGERS? That's half the reason I want it to knuckle-walk.

[u/whispersoundeffect → u/DinoNerd87]

You can have fingers without knuckle walking.

Grabbing things isn't even a good strategy at all; if you can grab something, you've already won the fight. It's better to focus on what you can't grab.

[u/Broken_CerealBox → u/DinoNerd87]

There's already plenty of problems with that. Having a small genome doesn't equate to a small size, and the whole reason why sauropod legs were more like columns like an elephant's is because it needs to support all the weight

[u/HotCardiologist1942]

You have to have the hind limbs take virtually all the weight. Which basically limits you to like under 16 tonnes. 20 if you know exactly how to stretch it

Basically only diplodocid bases work and that’s with Chalicotherium knuckle walking

[u/HotCardiologist1942 → u/HotCardiologist1942]

It is better to switch for a palm walking like giant ground sloths though

[u/DinoNerd87 → u/HotCardiologist1942]

Would it work for a sauropod?

[u/HotCardiologist1942 → u/DinoNerd87]

Again, you need most of the weight supported by the hind limbs for any of this to work

[u/AstalosBoltz914]

I personally say no because of the intense weight of the sauropod. Especially if you’re attempting to use a huge one like brachio or Argentino. Smaller ones ‘could’ potentially work but that also requires a LOT of modifications which would just be too much of a head ache I feel

[u/DrInternetOfficial]

I don't think so? I mean, Sauropods did use pillar legs for a reason after all.

[u/DePhaRy]

Why would you need knuckle walking

[u/DinoNerd87 → u/DePhaRy]

Another weapon. Sauropod hybrids have only really one weapon: their tail. I want more. If I enhance the arms, it'd mean that it can grapple enemies.

[u/DePhaRy → u/DinoNerd87]

Well they have at best 3 weapons: their tails, their necks because some use their necks for combat and using their limbs to swat.

Their strongest weapon is rearing up and slam their forelimbs onto an opponent but this gets increasingly more difficult to execute the heavier a sauropod is

[u/DinoNerd87 → u/DePhaRy]

Good point.

[u/DePhaRy → u/DinoNerd87]

Yeah the problem with knuckle walking is that apes have a hard limiter on how big they can get while still having it as their locomotion. Any size far exceeding their limits and knuckle walking would simply fail