Re: Blood flow in Sauropods

[Jeffrey Martz <martz@holly.ColoState.EDU>]

     Even if the  problems  of blood  pressure is  solved or  
disregarded, I see  two  big  problems reamaining  with  tripodal  sauropods:

1.  How  do  they  get up  in  the  first place?   The body anterior  to 
the  sacrum  (including the  body cavity and  that  long neck)  must  
have  bee  pretty  heavy.   Could the  forelimbs  have  provided enough 
push  to  get  that  mass  off the  ground?

2.  Coming back  down:   Again, presacral  mass  must  have been  
signifigant.  That weight  hitting  the  ground  would  put  some serious 
stress on the  forelimbs.  

        Has  anyone  played  around  with  the numbers  here?  Exactly  
how  much  presacral  mass would  a Apatosaur   or Diplodocid  have?    
How  about the  strength  of  the  forelimbs?

Jeff  Martz, CSU