Re: Meat eating sauropods

[AnmlPeople@aol.com]

>   There was a mention on either s.b.p or the dino-list about a Bakkerian
>claim of sauropods grabbing theropods with their mouths and tossing them
>around.  It was only an off-hand comment, no real detail, but it piqued my
>interest.

"This seems unlikely to me for one simple reason: leverage."

I thought of that,  too;  also that sauropods did not generally have large
enough mouths or teeth to grab and shake a big predator.  More likely,  I
think,  a sauropod might have jabbed at an attacker,  using his/her head to
deliver nasty butts (and using the butt,  i.e. the tail,  to whack the
attacker,  too,  if possible.)  But head-butts would have been a defense of
last resort,  since sauropod heads were not reinforced with extra bone,  or
spiked.  The defense of first resort would have been bulk--and maybe
stomping.  --Merritt Clifton,  editor,  ANIMAL PEOPLE.