RE: Swimming Dinosaurs

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Leonidus A.K. Giganotosaurus
>
> Do any known dinosaurs show any ability for swimming? Not as a single
> mode of locomotion, but rather, as a backup, or half-mode, like
> crocodiles and hippos, which swim half the time, but are otherwise
> land-based, or elephants, horses, etc, which can swim, when given the
> opportunity, but are dominantly land-based.

This is an astonishingly hard question to answer (at least for non-avian
forms).  I don't know of many amniotes that CAN'T swim to some degree, if
necessary.  Can anyone think of some?

Even forms like stegosaurs and ankylosaurs might be a bit more "sea-worthy"
than appears at first glance: yes, their tops had bony armor, but their
bellies would be full of lots and lots of guts, and their legs would
certainly add mass below the waterline.