Re: Centripetal Forces on a Horizontally Grazing Sauropoda

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004, Mike Milbocker wrote:
> Centripetal Forces on a Horizontally Grazing Sauropoda
> 
> It has been presented that sauropods kept their head and neck coplanar with
> the body and tail, and swung the neck, out-stretched in a circular path,
> called the browse plane, centered on the shoulder region.
> [...]

> For faster motion, the head could actively fill with blood while rising. The
> table below gives the g’s of force at various rise times:
> 
> Rise Time             g’s of force
> 
> 10 s                  0.99
> 9 s                   1.23
> 8 s                   1.55
> 7 s                   2.03
> 6 s                   2.76
> 5 s                   3.97
> 4 s                   6.21
> 
> Thus, the rapid motion of the head in a circular arc can create sufficient
> blood pumping forces.

A situation wherein the beast took evasive action from some predator could
involve faster speeds and less time. 

> [...]