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Sufferin' Sauropods


From: Martin Baeker <martin@turtle.ifw.ing.tu-bs.de>
Date: Thu Oct 30, 2003  11:11:58  PM Australia/Canberra
: zone65@bigpond.com:

But surely they were more bottom-heavy - the upper half of the animal
was mostly neck. The CoG as determined by the parts above the waterline
would be quite well balanced, AFAIK?

This I don't understand: Wasn't your argument that they were instable, so
that their CoG was quite high? If the lower part of the body is removed,
the CoG *must* move upwards, obviously, and make them more unstable.

If OTOH they were so bottom-heavy, then I don't see the danger of toppling
over in any case.

Martin.


I shouldn't have said bottom-heavy, they're middle-heavy. The way their legs are depicted in popular art, it seems they would have been unsupportable. I propose they had far more heavily-muscled legs than the gazelle-like limbs they're generally depicted with.

Peter Markmann