Re: dinosaur death poses actually predeath poses

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> It means that the argument that the strong dorso-flexion of the necks 
> common
> to many dinosaur skeletons is a post-mortem effect due to drying of the 
> dorsal
> muscles and ligaments pulling the cervical series far beyond that which 
> the
> neck could assume in life is apparently incorrect. Instead these poses
> represent close the the extreme posture that could be achieved in life.

This is a good point, but the *Sinosauropteryx* specimen pictured by 
Lingham-Soliar et al. does show something that can't have been achieved in 
life: the chevrons are in one place (in an arc that curves dorsally), and 
the articulated rest of the tail is in another (in another arc that curves 
even stronger dorsally).