Re: Gastric stones of dinosaurs were not for milling food !

[don ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com>]

Yeah it matters... Build a set of model jaws, see how much leaf mass you can 
strip off of various types of branches in a day. I haven't seen where anyone 
has done that and concluded it was a slamdunk to gather several hundred kilos 
of leaves every day, but I am sure I missed something. You got a ref, I would 
really appreciate it. 

----- Original Message ----
From: David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>
To: DML <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2006 4:02:03 PM
Subject: Re: Gastric stones of dinosaurs were not for milling food !

>> there are obvious attractions for those who wonder how in the heck those
>> huge critters gathered enough leaf-mass in the course of 24 hours to
>> support themselves.
>
> That "problem" has been solved long ago:
>
> ---------- By who?

Does that matter? Try GSP.

> We talking models, or guess-timation?

Closer to the former. I'm sure it's all in the archives. As I wrote:

> have a look at the size of a sauropod skull, and then take
> into account that they didn't waste time
> chewing. Not everyone is a mammal.
>
> ---------  I assume you refer to metabolism when you reference mammals.

No, it's in the same paragraph; I refer to chewing. Herbivorous mammals 
can't take in food and chew at the same time; they can only take in food 
when they've finished chewing a mouthful. Elephants spend most of every day 
chewing... judging from their teeth, sauropods did not.