Flapping Plates (was Re: FW: when dinos ruled)

[LONEWOLF <s086529@student.uq.edu.au>]

A question on stegosaurus' plates here:

At 17:04 30/08/1999 , 
"Grant Harding"  wrote:
>The animations in that one were indeed fantastic,
if featherless (but that's just a >consequence of the year).  I
loved the _Stegosaurus_ vs. _Ceratosaurus_ sequence.  

I liked that animation sequence too, pretty cool and following
Robert Bakker's interpretation. I was just wondering about those flapping
plates of Stegosaurus. Has it been shown that the bottom end of those
plates could not have been attached to voluntary muscle, and that it
therefore couldn't really be opened and closed the way Dr Bakker
suggested? Does anyone also know if Dr Bakker has revised his views on
this?

For that matter, has it been shown what really was the orientation
Stegosaurus' plates? I read in a book by, I believe, Sylvia Czerkas
(sorry I forget the title, as well as the name of the author, I believe
it was penned with her husband, also something-Czerkas; it was about 6
years or so ago) that postulated alternating plates only on the first
half of the animal, the rest of the plates being arranged in single file.
If I remember correctly, something about there never really having been
enough plates to form either alternating or double rows of plates on the
animal.

Greg