dale mcinnes wrote:
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(Why do I get to see source text? And BTW, where does all this "=20" and "=2C" stuff come from? Till a month ago that never happened on the DML.)
WHOOOOAA!! =20 The body of the elasmosaurid would not just sit there while the cervical series topped with skull did a slam dunk. Very ugly. Think pretty. What gracefully slides up and out most likely and gracefully = slipped back down.=20
It couldn't slide up gracefully, or at all, in the first place. I mean, think about it. The neck is at least as long as the rest of the body, very stiff, and massive. That's not a pneumatic sauropod we're talking about here. A plesiosaur neck was a massive rod of bone, muscle, ligament, tracheal rings (cartilaginous, I suppose), and practically nothing else. Where is the center of gravity of such an animal? Far enough behind that it could stick its entire neck out of the water? I don't think so.
Further to mention that a generalist would probably take a pterosaur once in a while.
Sure, but that's not the question; the question is whether it would happen often enough to drive elasmosaurid evolution.
Check out the elasmosaurids in the latest Journey to the Centre of the Eart= h. Truly believable and down right truly terrifying!! The animators did a s= pectacular job on them. Everything else was garbage. But the film is worth = purchasing just for that one scene! Spectacular!! --dale =20 =20
Basing scientific hypotheses on pretty/impressive pictures is what has given us BAND. Be careful with this approach.