Re: dinosaur copulation?

[Derek Tearne <derek@nezsdc.fujitsu.co.nz>]

>Have you considered the possibility that the weight of the tail counterbalanced
>the weight of the front portion of the body, thus enabling sauropods to mate
>with little effort (certainly less than elephants)?

It seems to me the main problem people are raising here is that 
the female dinosaur would have a problem supporting the weight of 
the male dinosaur as well as her own.  It seems to me that the male dinosaur
would be fairly good at supporting his own weight.  If the female 
lowered herself to her knees it would be quite possible for the male
to be positioned above the female without adding too much if any 
extra stress.  

Of course if they activity was particularly vigorous, or the male was 
startled during the act, an innapropriate movement of that amount of mass 
could damage both of the animals involved, thus explaining the broken 
sauropod tail.  However not all animals mate in a vigorous manner and 
this would probably be selected against with particularly large animals.

The males may also have been significantly smaller than the females as is 
postulated for the T-rex, which would reduce the problem further.


---
Derek Tearne.   --   derek@fujitsu.co.nz   --    Fujitsu New Zealand   --
Some of the more environmentally aware dinosaurs were worried about the
consequences of an accident with the new Iridium enriched fusion reactor.
"If it goes off only the cockroaches and mammals will survive..." they said.