Re: Mamenchisaurus Posture Paper

[Roger Seymour <roger.seymour@adelaide.edu.au>]

I don't know the answers to these questions.  But it is certain that
life in water would not only aid moving blood around but it would also
aid moving the neck.

"Richard W. Travsky" wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 1 Jun 2005, Roger Seymour wrote:
> > frank bliss wrote:
> > > [...]
> > > to speak).  Is the mainstream opinion that they were high browsers? (Do
> > > their neck verts allow articulation in that way?) Is it necessary to
> > > look for a mechanism to allow high browsing when it may not have been a
> > > method used for feeding.  (Granted it has to be thought out.)
> >
> > Yes, I believe that the high browsing is favored, and some (including the
> > Barosaurus in the AMNH) have sauropods tripoding to reach higher.   I prefer
> 
> This ability of course calls for strong neck muscles. How much over
> engineering (so to speak) is there in a sauropod neck? That is, extra
> lifting capacity? I'm thinking of a situation where predators would
> hang onto the neck - like, say, a lion would, tho not necessarily for
> purposes of suffocation here. This would be weight it would have to
> support.
> 
> > [...]
> > So whales do not worry about blood pressure problems; they seem to have
> 
> And speaking of blood pressure, the activities mentioned so far are
> stressless in nature (eating). What happens when the animal is stressed,
> as in mating or being attacked? BP increases. How do giraffes (as the
> only apparent analog) handle it?
> 
> > [...]

-- 
Roger S. Seymour
Environmental Biology (Darling Building D418)
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Adelaide
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