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Re: STEGOSAUR TAILS (WAS DUCKBILL NECKS)
Sorry; the start off this message was sent earlier because I
accidentally sent instead of postponing it.
> > But since tails can be found in many positions (as can necks, of course)
> > how can we be dogmatic about why a given specimen is found in a given
> > position. I don't accept in situ bone articulation as definitive evidence
> > of how bones were held or articulated in the living animal.
>
Don't use the word "dogmatic". It makes my skin crawl when people
give that term to an idea just because it has common acceptance that
doesn't jive with thier own impressions; as anyone who has been involved
with mounting a dinosaur skeleton with Ken Carpenter knows, he is pretty
rigorous about having things articulate in a manner that makes sense.
Compared to lateral movement, there is a limited amount of vertical
movement in the tails of most dinosaurs (except some theropods) including
_Stegosaurus_, if you sit down and play with the articulated vertebrae.
In any case, I don't see how having the tail up is going to
significantly increase vulnerability; an _Allosaurus_ would have as clear
a shot at the thigh or the shoulder or the head as it would at the
underside of the tail, and both of these are farther away from the
spikes and hypothetically more crippling. Lowering the tail a bit isn't
even going to give much cover to even the back of the leg. Is the primary
objective of the attacking _Allosaurus_ to castrate the stegosaur or bite
it on the butt?
LN Jeff
.