Re: Snoozing Sauropods, Batman!

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Aidan Karley (aidan_karley@yahoo.co.uk) wrote:

< Huh? "amorphic"?>

  He means that sauropod arms and ankles, at least, have very little
interarticular definition without condyles. The surfaces in adult sauropods
have been linked to unossified cartilage, however this means, unlike adult
mammals, that the surfaces are not proned to undergoing stresses at multiple
angles, and that the bones are almost entirely modified to undergo long-axis
stresses through the diaphysis rather than around the epiphyses.

  Cheers,

Jaime A. Headden

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

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