RE: Platyhystrix and dinosaur humps/sails

["Tracy Ford" <tlford@ix.netcom.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
Jerry D. Harris
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2000 6:13 AM
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Cc: Dinonet
Subject: RE: Platyhystrix and dinosaur humps/sails


        ...except that some of the moderately high-spined forms, like
_Acrocanthosaurus_, have abundant evidence on the neural spines for heavy
ligamenture along the back -- if there are ligaments there, then there
cannot be a simple flesh-and-bone sail, a la _Dimetrodon_. The back of
_Acrocanthosaurus_ would be much more hump-like than sail-like, but I don't
mean "hump" as a large, rotund structure (which is the image I think a lot
of people think of when they hear the term -- probably residue from the
"Hunchback of Notre Dame" mythology we were all raised on, and maybe we
need a better term than "hump").  The "hump" would be elongate, and still
narrower in width than, say, the dimension across the rib cage, but still
thicker than if the skin were virtually appressed against the neural
spines.

What about the tail? Acrocanthosaurus has tall caudal neural spines also.
Tracy