Re: STEGOSAUR TAILS (WAS DUCKBILL NECKS)

[tlford@ix.netcom.com]

Brian Franczak wrote:
> 
> Peter Von Sholly wrote:
> >
> > And nobody ever noticed this before (in the old days) when they were
> > putting stegosaurs together?  Besides, as long as they articulate with the
> > angle of the spine, they could slope gently downward, NOT dragging on the
> > ground, no.  I maintain there is some leeway in how bones can be put
> > together.  Some.  Sometimes.  I was told once by a preparator who shall
> > remain nameless that he was very excited about the new stegosaur tail
> > orientation and wanted to be the first (or one of the first) to have his
> > museum's specimen mounted that way-  but the funny thing was, it wouldn't
> > GO together that way.  I asked how it DID want to go together and he said
> > it had a natural, but gentle, downward slope to it.  Now, he may have been
> > wrong, but that's what he told me.

Now, which specimen was he trying to remount? Was it a Cleveland-Llyod
specimen? If so, it's a composite and the missing bones were made to
fill in the gaps. It was made decades ago and the missing tail vertebrae
would have been made to fit the current thinking, which was to drag the
tail. The new specimens do not drag their tails.

Tracy


>