Re: Magyarosaurus and Seismosaurus questions

["Martin Barnett" <martin.barnett3@virgin.net>]

Peter Von Sholly writes:
> when I read your question about long
> tails and large sauropods, I immediately thought of brachiosaurs which are
> huge but have tails that are quite short relative to their size.
Good point.  I would argue that Brachiosaurs would have to have longer tails
if their necks were as horizontal as diplodocids, but the Mamenchisaurus
material is telling me not to.  While we're on the subject of brachiosaurs -
does anyone have a modern length estimate for the South Korean Ultrasaurus
now that it's been pushed out of the supergiant bracket following the mix-up
about it's limbs?

Sam Barnett

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Martin Barnett <martin.barnett3@virgin.net>
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu <dinosaur@usc.edu>; mickey_mortimer@email.msn.com
> <mickey_mortimer@email.msn.com>
> Date: Friday, December 03, 1999 9:31 PM
> Subject: Re: Magyarosaurus and Seismosaurus questions
>
>
> >Oo-er, don't quite know where I got that Seismosaurus was a titanosaur -
> >will have to refresh my notepad.  Thanks!  Thanks for other comments too.
> >Just to clarify though:  There is no correlation between large sauropod
> size
> >and a long tail. A long tail would be expected from a Diplodocid.
> Therefore
> >if we found only the proximal end of a very large titanosaur we would
> expect
> >it to have a comparatively shorter tail than if it were a Diplodocid?
> >
> >Sam
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: Mickey Mortimer <mickey_mortimer@email.msn.com>
> >To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
> >Sent: Friday, December 03, 1999 5:28 AM
> >Subject: Re: Magyarosaurus and Seismosaurus questions
> >
> >
> >>     Martin Barnett wrote-
> >>
> >>     1)is this still considered to be a titanosaur?
> >>
> >>     Yes, Magyarosaurus is.
> >>
> >>     3)Is the extremely long proportionate tail on Seismosaurus a
product
> >of
> >> being a Titanosaur or a prerequisite of being such a large sauropod?
> >>
> >>     Seismosaurus is a diplodocid, not a titanosaur.  Keep in mind we
only
> >> have the proximal portion, so we don't know how long the tail really
is.
> >> The long tail is typical of diplodocids, that of titanosaurs is
shorter,
> >> though I don't know by how much.  But no, large sauropods don't need
> >> especially long tails as long as their necks were shorter or held more
> >> upright.  Diplodocids simply had long necks held out near horizontally,
> so
> >> need the tail to counterbalance.
> >>
> >>     4)If a diplodocid were the size of Seismosaurus, how would it's
> >> proportions differ from A:Diplodocus; and B:Seismosaurus?
> >>
> >>     Seismosaurus is a diplodocid the size of itself. ;)
> >>
> >>     Mickey Mortimer
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
>