Re: Sauropods and those little heads

[brucet@mindspring.com (bruce thompson)]

<snippage.>

>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

        IIRC, sauropods' teeth were nippers, not grinders.  Apparently,
they just bit off leaves and twigs and swallowed them without chewing.  The
foodstuffs were processed in a gizzard, in some instances assisted by
gastroliths.
        Even so, endothermy would have been expensive.  I don't see any
reason to think that Mesozoic forage and browse was any more nutritious
(compared to meat) than nowadays.  An endothermic animal the size of a
C-130 Hercules (not Galaxy as I said earlier)  would have to tuck into a
godawful lot of cycads daily.


bruce



        "Dammit, Philbert; what kind of a lepidopterist are you?  For god's 
sake,
man; stand up to them!"