Dinocephalosaurus habits

[david peters <davidrpeters@earthlink.net>]

Here's a thought...

If this neck rib expansion hypothesis proves unfeasible, perhaps, like it's 
less marine counterparts in the tanystropheid clade, Dinocephalosaurus retained 
the tradition of a sit-and-wait predator. Dinocephalosaurus has small weak 
limbs. Weaker than in Tanystropheus. I don't see this morphology as 
particularly mobile, even in Tanystropheus.

Okay, so it buries itself in an inch of silt. A fish shows up overhead, the 
neck of Dinocephalosaurus skyrockets out of the murk and snatches the morsel 
from below. No problems there. 

The problem is inhaling from a long snorkel under water pressure, a problem 
mentioned in the text of the original article.

Here's an alternate method of respiration:

What if Dinocephalosaurus merely captured a bubble of air in its throat sac?  
Sure it's difficult pulling a bubble underwater, but a balance between air 
intake and muscle power would solve that problem. Never so much that floatation 
would result. Once safely hidden back in the silt, with the neck returned to a 
horizontal orientation, I would think the pressure of the water on the throat 
sac bubble would equal the pressure from the water on the lungs. All things 
being equal, couldn't the lungs inflate from the pressurized air bubble within 
the throat sac? 

Exhaling would be easy.

Might not work for Brachiosaurus, but maybe this guy.

David Peters