Re: Sauropods and those little heads

["Dictator-for-life Calvin" <MWEDEL@gslan.offsys.ou.edu>]

>Finally elephants need a large cheeked mouth with huge
>muscles to process their food.They must spend time masticating plant
>material into pulp BEFORE they swallow it, and can take another
>mouthful.Sauropods simply would have used their mouths for an entrance
>point.They (depending on the abilities of their gizzards)could take
>mouthful after mouthful and I believe they could actually take in MORE
>plant material in less time than a herbivore that has to chew with it's
>head.                                          

Thank you for saying so.  I've been having the same thoughts ever 
since I read R. MacNeil Alexander's book on the biomechanics of 
dinosaurs (don't remember the exact title).  In the sauropod chapter 
I believe he made an argument roughly like:

1.  Elephants spend all their time eating.

2.  Sauropods were bigger than elephants, and would have to eat a lot 
more if they were endotherms.

3.  Sauropods couldn't have consumed enough plant material in a day to 
support an endothermic metabolism.

But as you point out, point 1. should read, "Elephants spend a lot of 
time eating and a lot of time chewing."  I don't know if sauropods 
were endothermic or not, and given their size I'm not sure if it 
makes much difference either way, but I never felt too comfy with the 
elephant munching time argument.

Matt Wedel