Jaime Headden schrieb:
David, sauropods did not chew, but they also didn't lack for oral processing, either (and McNab doesn't seem to say sauropods "chewed". To say otherwise is to pretend that their heads were just the input for an enormous prehistoric Hoover.
...which appears to be basically correct. The difference is that they didn't use suction; instead, they used various raking and/or cutting methods (to bite stuff off), some of them sophisticated enough to produce e. g. regular wear facets on the teeth. In other words, about as much oral processing as a tyrannosaur, if not actually a bit less. Chewing -- oral processing that makes a real difference to digestion, and which takes a lot of time which "defines the maximal rate at which plant resources can be consumed" by "the largest herbivorous mammals" -- is something different.
Reading the abstract, the word "chew" is not applied or (it seems) implied in the abstract. The line "If the food intake of the largest herbivorous mammals defines the maximal rate at which plant resources can be consumed in terrestrial environments" can only be expressed using oral mastication (rather than any other form of processing) of plant matter, I'll take back my comments and post an apology.
<sigh> Come on. An apology isn't necessary for what is obviously a simple innocent misinterpretation. You're among scientists here, not among gentlemen who're looking for an excuse for a duel.