RE: Dinosaur Discs

["Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>]

Thanks Adam! :-)  

Dwight

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Adam Yates [SMTP:A.Yates@zoo.latrobe.edu.au]
        Sent:   Tuesday, September 29, 1998 7:15 PM
        To:     'dinosaur@usc.edu '
        Subject:        RE: Dinosaur Discs

         
        We can be relatively certain that dinosaurs did have intervertebral
discs.
        When several vertebrae co-ossify (common in diplodocid tails) it is
usually
        a non-pathological addition of extra bone around the outside of the
        vertebrae. If these co-ossified verts are then sectioned, we can see
the
        vertebrae are held in their life position by the outside sheath of
bone.
        They display an appreciable gap between them indicating that a disc
was
        present.

        cheers

        Adam Yates