(Fwd) Large Dino Growth

[NEIL CLARK <NCLARK@museum.gla.ac.uk>]

This message is forwarded from the paleonet.  Richard was keen 
that this should appear on the dinosaur list too.  As he has not 
yet subscribed to the dinosaur list, could you cc him your 
responses directly too.

Neil

Either that or I will forward your responses myself until he has 
subscribed.

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Sun, 14 May 95 20:04:07 CDT
>From:          rswigart@heartland.bradley.edu (Richard Swigart)
To:            paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
Subject:       Large Dino Growth
Reply-to:      paleonet@nhm.ac.uk



        Mike Yenga brought up an interesting subject when he ask
how long for a large Dino to reach adult size.
        As I thought about this; thinking well Whales are large,
perhaps the could set a minimum from infant to adult, and other
such thoughts.  The immage came to mind of an infant whale 
suckling his/her mother's super rich milk high in calcium and
phosphorous so he/she can grow rapidly.
        Then the thought hit me,  drawings of the super large 
adult Dino's (at least the late ones) show them pruning vegetation
from the very tops of trees.  Some are even shown standing on hind
legs so they can reach the very tippy tippy tops of the trees. 
        What in the world would the baby's be eating?  Having just
hatched from an egg the size of(or smaller) than an ostrich egg?
They certainly weren't reaching the tippy tops of any trees.  They
couldn't even reach the tops of a good size bush.  If the
vegitation is good enough down here to grow so large, why gro so 
large?
        Another image just came to mind.  I have seen film of 
elephants, especially very large bull African Elephants pushing 
over quite large trees to get at the top vegetation.  Why would
an animal as heavy as a herd of elephants need to stand on its
hind legs to reach the tippy tippy tops of trees?  Why not just
push the darn thing over?
        I know these are not question upon which the 
paleontological
world is expected to spin, but I would be interested in hearing some
of the more learned opinions.
        I have composed this without the help of a word processor, 
so
if there are many errors in it, blame it on a poor speller. (me)