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re: Long Bone Scaling in Neosauropod Dinosaurs
Guy Leahy wrote:
Congrats to Dr. Bonnan...
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The neosauropod sample
was very homogeneous, and linear analyses revealed
that nearly all humerus and femur dimensions,
including cortical area, scale with isometry against
maximum length. Thin-plate splines analyses showed
that little to no significant shape change occurs with
increasing length or cortical area for the humerus or
femur. Even with the exclusion of the long-limbed
Brachiosaurus, the overall trends were consistently
isometric. These results suggest that the mechanical
advantage of limb-moving muscles and the relative
range of limb movement decreased with increasing size.
The isometric signal for neosauropod long bone
dimensions and shape suggests these dinosaurs may have
reached the upper limit of vertebrate long bone
mechanics. Perhaps, like stilt-walkers, the absolutely
long limbs of the largest neosauropods allowed for
efficient locomotion at gigantic size with few
ontogenetic changes.
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Guy Leahy
That's just so wierd. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that the
isometric scaling strongly suggested an aquatic habit....
--
Colin McHenry
Computation Biomechanics Research Group http://www.compbiomech.com/
School of Engineering (Mech Eng)
University of Newcastle
NSW 2308
t: +61 2 4921 8879