Re: Sauropod ONP...and energetics

[dannj@alphalink.com.au]

On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 16:35:31 -0800, T. Michael Keesey wrote
> 
> Here's a thought: the greenest parts of a plant are generally at the
> top, right (where access to sunlight is unobstructed)? Thick-trunked,
> firmly-rooted plants growing in a very dense configuration could
> create a barrier for large animals that are unable to fit between the
> plants. Solution 1 would be for the animals to uproot the plants that
> are in their way, but this requires a lot of energy. Solution 2: the
> animals grow really long necks so they can reach out over the
> already-browsed trunks in their way and get at the greenery.

A long neck would also allow saurpods to feed for a certain distance into 
dense stands of trees which they'd otherwise not be able to penetrate at all 
(not without emulating a bulldozer).

If diplodocids had a prehensile tip to their tail, they could raise that as 
high as they wanted (no brain or windpipe to worry about) to tear down higher 
branches, then feed at ground level. In that case, the long neck might also 
be there to counterbalance the (hypothetical) long prehensile tail.

--
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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist         http://heretichides.soffiles.com
Melbourne, Australia        http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
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