Re: CURSORIAL STEGOSAURS?

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/30/01 6:16:27 PM EST, mbonnan@hotmail.com writes:

<< Bipedal ancestry, where the manus served a different function than the 
pes, 
 would be a viable explanation/hypothesis for this discrepency.  This, and 
 many other pieces of evidence I have seen in sauropods, suggest to me that 
 sauropods, too, had a bipedal ancestor. >>

The same kinds of effects would be expected in a terrestrial quadruped 
descended from an arboreal quadruped. All that's necessary is that the 
forelimbs acquire a somewhat different locomotor function from the hind 
limbs, which they would do in an arboreal climber (hind limbs would push, 
forelimbs would pull). My own picture of the ancestral sauropod is something 
vaguely like a tamandua, about the same size but with a smaller head, longer 
neck, and longer tail. Facultative bipedality would certainly be within the 
realm of its locomotor repertoire.