Re: And Still More...

[Jura <pristichampsus@yahoo.com>]

--- "Jerry D. Harris" <jharris@dixie.edu> wrote:

> At the risk of making Jaime drool his way into
> dehydration, here's a couple 
> more new papers:
> 
> Milàn, J., Christiansen, P., and Mateus, O. 2005. A
> three-dimensionally 
> preserved sauropod manus impression from the Upper
> Jurassic of Portugal: 
> Implications for sauropod manus shape and locomotor
> mechanics. Kaupia 
> 14:47-52.
> 
>     ABSTRACT: Sauropods were the largest animals
> ever to walk the earth, and 
> evolved several specializations in their limbs in
> order to support their 
> body mass. Their legs became columnar and their
> manual digits became reduced 
> and encapsulated in tissue to form a single
> weight-bearing unit in the 
> derived sauropods. A new three-dimensionally
> preserved cast of a sauropod 
> manus, found in the Upper Jurassic Lourinhã
> Formation, Portugal, 
> demonstrates not only the shape, but also the actual
> movements of the 
> sauropod manus during the stride. The manus cast is
> 32 cm deep, and show the 
> manus to be hoof-shaped and lacking any impressions
> of individual digits, 
> except for digit I, the pollex.Well preserved
> striations from skin on the 
> sides of the cast show that the manus was covered in
> rough, tubercular skin. 
> The width of the manus cast is consistent from top
> to bottom, demonstrating 
> that the manus was brought down and lifted
> vertically before any 
> parasaggital movement of the upper limb took place.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Awesome, sauropods marched!

Jason

"I am impressed by the fact that we know less about many modern [reptile] types 
than we do of many fossil groups." - Alfred S. Romer

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