"eleven year old POTENTIAL paleontologist" who likes the British spelling and questions the 'wisdom' of the LOST WORLD movie

["Ray Stanford" <starsong@prodigy.net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Ray Stanford <starsong@prodigy.net>
To: tomt@f1.net.au <tomt@f1.net.au>
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 1998 12:06 PM
Subject: Your question about the biker - Mamenchisaurus problem


>Hi, Tom, "eleven year old POTENTIAL palaeontologist" --
>
>I think I can help on the biker - Mamenchisaurus question, but first:
>What's an eleven-year-old doing up at 2:35 AM this morning?! ;-)  Or, did
>some else post it for you at that hour?  If not, watch out for your needed
>sleep.  You may not feel the effect of sleep deprivation, but numerous
>studies show its effects.  Yes, even on the young who are often too vital
to
>feel it consciously.  I know, you didn't ask for that advice, but I'm the
>father of two boys and a girl, and I couldn't help but notice. :-(
>
>    O.K., to what you really wanted to know:  A biker's journey as
described
>would be might fool-hardy, if not impossible!  One of several reasons why
is
>that, although sauropods like Mamenchisaurus may look (as seen from the
>SIDE) big enough for this be done, if the animal were standing still or
>slowly walking (I don't recall the movie scene precisely), the  legs would
>probably be too close together to permit this.
>
>    Please refer to DINOSAUR TRACKS  (and other fossil footprints of the
>western united states), by Martin Lockley with Adrian P. Hunt, Columbia
>University Press, 1995.  On all of page 175 and continuing on page 176 (as
>well as elsewhere), one learns that in study of sauropod trackways,
>world-wide, there appears to be a trend (from the earliest of Jurassic
>sauropods, through those of the Cretaceous), for the trackway gauge
>(relative positions of right and left tracks along an imaginary center
line)
>to become from literally adjacent (e.g., from the  Jurassic Purgatoire
>trackway site in Colorado) along that central line, to still surprisingly
>close  together, e.g., in the Brontopodus birdi (track-type name, not a
dino
>name, per se) tracks near Glen Rose, Texas.   [Yes, trackway evidence
>indicates that sauropod bodies were flatter than many artists who depict
>them seem to think.]
>
>    If this rule holds for Manchesaurus (although I've not seen a trackway
I
>can be sure was created by this particular sauropod), which is from the
late
>Jurassic, I doubt the biker would have the chance of a fly on flypaper.  [I
>know some bikers are foolish, but, hopefully, not that foolish.]
>
>    Well, this may not help that biker in the LOST WORLD movie, but here's
>thinking it may help you demonstrate an error, therein.
>
>    With hopes you're not 'burning too much mid-night oil' over all this,
>and best wishes for your career objective(s).
>
>    Ray Stanford
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: tom <tomt@f1.net.au>
>To: dinosaur@usc.edu <dinosaur@usc.edu>
>Date: Wednesday, February 18, 1998 2:35 AM
>Subject: (no subject)
>
>
>>I'm building a page on the Lost World and am including a section on its
>>errors.  In one scene a biker is seen to drive under the belly of and
>>between the legs of a Mamenchisaurus.  He comes under the tail and out
>>under its head.  Is this possible?
>>Tom
>>11 year old POTENTIAL palaeontologist
>