Re: Gallery and Commentary for Copenhagen Mamenchisaurus

["T. Michael Keesey" <mightyodinn@yahoo.com>]

--- Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com> wrote:
> So the basic problem of sauropod neck posture is that the morphology
> seems to tell us one thing, whereas energetic and evolutionary
> considerations tell us another.  If you can resolve this
> contradiction, you will make me a happy man.

As Scott Hartman pointed out (pers. comm.), the problem goes away if you allow
the animal to rear up on its hind legs. The axis might be at the sacrum, not
the base of the neck.

--- Graydon <oak@uniserve.com> wrote:
> Apatosaurs and diplodocids generally are prime candidates for rearing to
> eat from tree crowns; is there a way to tell the difference between a
> horizontal neck posture in a quadrupedal stance and a vertical posture
> in a bipedal stance?

Exactly! (Minor nitpick, though: _Apatosaurus_ *is* a diplodocid [although not
a diplodocine].)


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