Re: late night thoughts: misunderstand what?4

[Anthony Docimo <keenir@hotmail.com>]

> Dann, you are neglecting the issue of balance, which is the key issue w/ 
> large short-armed bipeds. Whether they bog down is not the issue, it is 
> whether they _fall_ down.

anything whose belly is higher than a snake's, can fall down.

> Bipeds are particularly vulnerable to sudden, unpredictable changes in 
> footing

horses can trip and fall just as easily as ostriches.

> (vertical differential, traction, etc). I feel it probable that the large 
> bipeds not only stuck to firm ground, but probably firm ground that was 
> well-compacted by large quadrupeds.

you want to tell this to swamp birds?

> I actually have considerable personal experience in this area, having spent 
> much of my life literally in swamps.

good for you.

> This includes working w/ machinery; pickups and tractors; and animals 
> (cows, horses, and dogs). Trust me on this; a cow can go places a man can't 
> go, WITHOUT using his hands, and a mule bred from a Percheron horse can 
> pull logs from a place an ox can't.

all of whom weigh far less than any sauropod...so your analogy falls apart.

> Even more to the point, I became permanently restricted to crutches some 
> years ago,

sorry to hear that.

> and have experience w/ both modes that very few humans can claim to have.

sounds more like you walk like a bat, not a sauropod.

> This is because I am not very smart, and keep right on going out there...

this explains a few things.  :)

> I can cite no studies, but can tell you this with confidence.

sounds like one of those spam emails.  :)

>  Also, some large theropods had longer arms than others.

uh-huh...and that's the price of tea in China - how?

> How long your arms have to be to be of assistance in critically unstable 
> balance situations I don't know, of course. Intuitively, I would say arms 
> much shorter than a humans is too short. Again, give it a try!-- DO.

 give *WHAT* a try?  try watching a theropod race across a mudflat?

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