More sauropod sniffers ...

["Matthew Bonnan" <mbonnan@hotmail.com>]

Adam Yates said:
Further there
> isn't much else about a sauropod skeleton that is paedomorphic, they can
> instead be characterised as animals with a lot of "supergrowth" or
> peramorphosis, the opposite of paedomorphosis.

Well, okay.  My question is, if fast growth and cartilaginous joints are a 
juvenile characteristic, and if these features were retained into adulthood, 
why would this not be neotony or more precisely paedomorphosis?  Sauropods 
have extremely rugose and poorly developed bony joints, a characteristic 
observed in juvenile animals where more cartilage is present in the 
epiphyses of bone.  I know that extended growth tends to be associated with 
peramorphosis, but the retracted nares, poorly ossified joints, and large 
size might suggest a weird form of paedomorphosis?  I am pretty clueless 
about embryology beyond the basics: someone enlighten me if necessary. =)  
And don't sidestep this by saying this is all due to size: the biggest 
mammoths and predatory dinosaurs don't show anything like what I've 
described. =)

I brought up this issue to illustrate that there may not be a "reason" for 
having high nostrils: it may have been due to previous historical constraint 
or the vagaries of embryological development.  The skull of Mussasaurus is 
still pretty weird looking to me for a prosauropod.

Comments? Suggests? Criticisms? Back lashing?  Again, skulls and cervicals 
take a back seat to limbs and feet: the better to kick you with, my dear. =)

Matt Bonnan

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