Short-necked dinosaur challenges accepted theory

[Allan Edels <edels@msn.com>]

I don't recall whether this has already been discussed a little while ago, 
but here's the URL:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&e=1&u=/nm/20050601/sc_nm/dinosaur_dc

The text of the story is between the "========="'s:

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Short-necked dinosaur challenges accepted theory

LONDON (Reuters) - The discovery of a short-necked dinosaur from the Late 
Jurassic period has turned on its head accepted theory that the long-necks 
ruled the roost, scientists said on Wednesday.

The skeleton of the pocket-sized dinosaur -- which was less than 10 meters 
(yards) long -- discovered in Patagonia goes against the grain of increased 
body size and neck length that typified sauropod dinosaurs.

"The long neck is a particular hallmark of sauropod dinosaurs and is usually 
regarded as a key feeding adaptation," scientists from the Bavarian State 
Collection for Palaeontology and Geology in Munich wrote in the science 
journal Nature.

They said the discovery of the short-necked specimen from a group of 
dinosaurs known as dicraeosaurids demonstrated a clear counter trend and 
"indicates that the ecology of dicraeosaurids might have differed 
considerably from that of other sauropods."

And in case of any confusion, the scientists led by Oliver Rauhut stress 
that the specimen is that of an adult not an infant or adolescent.

The researchers said they believed the short-necked dinosaurs of southern 
Latin America -- whose closest known relatives are to be found in Africa -- 
may have evolved to deal with specific feeding requirements.

"The tendency toward neck shortening in dicraeosaurids indicated that these 
... were progressively adapting for low browsing and might have been 
specialized on specific food sources," they wrote.

They said it seemed the pocket dinosaur was adapted to feeding on plants one 
to two meters in height in contrast to their long-necked cousins the 
diplodocus which could feed off a far wider variety of vegetation.

"Whereas dicraeosaurids became specialized feeders by shortening neck length 
and thus apparently limiting absolute body size, diplodocids solved this 
problem in a radically different way, by greatly increasing neck length and 
thus potential feeding range," the scientists said.

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Thanks,

Allan Edels