dinosaur humps (was Re: A Whole Bunch Of Questions)

["Jordan Mallon" <j_mallon@hotmail.com>]

> From: "Mickey Mortimer" <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>

> I prefer Bailey's evidence for humps.  Certainly better than any >published 
> argument for sails.

Perhaps better than any published argument for >thermodynamic< sails, but 
what about display, mimicry, etc.?  Bailey barely touches on the other 
possibilities.  He insists that the transverse narrowness (and sagittal 
broadness) of the neural spines indicate an increased resistance to strain 
in the anteroposterior plane (thus implying a muscular hump of some sort).  
But don't most dinosaur neurals, whether tall or not, exhibit similar 
dimensions?  Why couldn't dinosaurs have just elongated them to form a sail 
without changing the aforementioned dimensions?

Jordan Mallon

Undergraduate Student, Carleton University
Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoecology

Website: http://www.geocities.com/paleoportfolio/
AIM: jslice mallon

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