Re: RE: Warm Blooded vs. Cold Blooded

[jdharris@lust.isem.smu.edu (Jerry D. Harris)]

At 10:53 PM 9/14/95, Virginia Tidwell wrote:
>  I presume that you are referring to Janensch's Brachiosaurus branci
>skull in Berlin. Do you have any measurements to substantiate your
>statement that it could "swallow a human whole"?  I have to question
>that based on the fact that B. branchi is not considered to be one of
>the larger sauropods - we're not talking Amphecoelus here.

        I must concur with Virginia, Greg -- perhaps it is true that the
Tendaguru beast has a skull large enough that a human could fit in the
mouth (although any way you slice it, that's still a _damned_ big skull for
a sauropod!  8-)  ), but I find it hard to believe that even the much
larger _Amphicoelias_ had an actual _gullet_ diameter capable of having a
human pass down.  Think about the size of your skull compared to the
opening of your espohagus:  that's a pretty big ratio.  To have a gullet
through which _I_ (at 5'7" and roughly 165 lbs) could pass comfortably, the
skull would have to be something ranging up to small-car sized, methinks.



Jerry D. Harris
Shuler Museum of Paleontology
Southern Methodist University
Box 750395
Dallas  TX  75275-0395
(214) 768-2750
FAX:  (214) 768-2701
jdharris@lust.isem.smu.edu
        (Compuserve:  73132,3372)

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"If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and
quacks like a duck, then it is the sister taxon to,
but cannot parsimoniously be, the direct ancestor
to all other ducks."

                                --  _not_ W. Hennig

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