RE: thanks for tracks & a question

["Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>]

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   RAY D STANFORD [SMTP:STARSONG@prodigy.net]
        Sent:   Tuesday, February 23, 1999 9:27 PM
        To:     jconrad@lib.drury.edu; Dino mailing list
        Subject:        Re: thanks for tracks & a question


        Hello Jack and List,

        Interestingly, one examines the Sauropod trackways already known, we
see that even the most 'wide-gauge' trackways (presumably all from the
Cretaceous) inform us that Sauropods were (considering their length) rather
svelt, slim-bodied animals.  Our most observant artists, such as Greg Paul
and others on this list, are now more accurately portraying sauropods as the
sleek, rather slim-bodied animals they were.
        Perhaps anyone using Sauropod models in volumetric displacement
studies to facilitate calculations of body weight, had better use the newest
slim-bodied versions, to avoid seriously over-estimating Sauropod tonnage.
        Hope this helps someone's knowledge of Sauropods and of the
difficulties and limitations one confronts in the study of their ichnites
here in Maryland.
                Ray Stanford
        @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

        Ray;

           Okay, this brought a question to mind that was rattling around in
my head a few weeks ago.  To whit: can anything
        be inferred about dinosaur mass/weight from the prints, aside from
the "wide/narrow" gauge artifact you just mentioned?
        Here, I was thinking of forensic work as the model, in that the
approx. height & weight of a human can be derived from
        shoe size, stride length, & the depth of the tracks.  Now, I realize
that preservation conditions would greatly complicate
        this, as would the question of under track, over track, etc.  But,
nevertheless, it seems intuitively feasible.  

        Regards;
        Dwight