Re: Gallery and Commentary for Copenhagen Mamenchisaurus

["Dr. Darrin T. Milne B.Sc., D.C." <dr.milne@sympatico.ca>]

Thanks for the link below. I signed up. I read the article and from what I
understand, the authors concluded that the structure of the facet joints
suggests these beings held there necks in the horizontal plane and hence,
were essentailly bovine-like in feeding habits. I have a question: what is
the evolutionary advantage of having such a long neck when a shorter one
could do the same job for ground feeders? I do not know of an analogous
animal in present day that carriers a long neck horizontal to the ground. I
could only imagine a horizontal neck in a water dwelling creature. But, I
think current research suggests there creatures were mainly land dwelling
yes?
In any event, thanks so much for the article and for the information.

Darrin

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/284/5415/798.pdf
> which modeled the range of neck movement in _Diplodocus_ and
> _Apatosaurus_ assuming that the zygapophysed could disarticulate by
> about 50%, and reached the conclusion that both genera probably spent
> most of the lives with their necks more or less horizontal.
>
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