re: long neck sauropods/(no subject)

[David Peters <davidrpeters@earthlink.net>]

Some of Mark Hallett's well considered comments might have wider
applications:


MH wrote:
Some short-legged birds like swans have hyper-long necks, but this
is primarily an underwater adaptation to feeding on submerged vegetation

growing on lake and river bottoms while the body remains at the surface
of the
water.

>>>Possible also for azhdarchids? We know that sister taxa were floaters
by way of manus only impressions.



MH wrote:
If diplodocoids were not specialists for upright rearing, how do we
explain the ? short forelimbs, ? the sled chevrons (similar in function
to those of ground sloths,
which Paul has consistently pointed out)?

>>>Possible also for Tanystropheus? Only the super long-necked
prolacertifoms developed post-cloacal bones; overkill as hemipenes,
ideal for tail bracing.


David Peters
St. Louis