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Re: Blood flow in Sauropods
At 02:23 PM 9/14/95 -0600, Jeffrey Martz wrote:
>Are you suggesting that if an animal the size of a sauropod isn't
>walking around, a theropod will just miss it? In an open plain, a
>sauropod, walking around or not, would not be terribly inconspicuous. In
>any case, the neck would still be moving.
OK, Jeff, here's the scenerio (Hey! I said it was "just a thought"),
confined *only* to those sauropods with horizontal necks:
1. The "open plain" is lush with *high* ferns or other herbaceous
vegetation.
2. Said vegetation hides neck (and tail) movements of grazing sauropod
*from afar* (please note qualification).
3. Bulky immobile bodies ring no more alarms than modest hills to a
predator scanning *from afar* (please note qualification).
4. From time to time, said grazing sauropod carefully pokes head above
concealing vegetation to
a) check for advancing predators; and
b) monitor other members (if any) of herd or family group.
Highly suspect dramatization follows (suitable for family audiences):
[ Alex and Alice Allosaur stand poised at edge of a Late Jurassic
forest, surveying a sweeping plain of high yucky green things gently swaying
in the afternoon breeze.]
Alex: "I'm really hungry, Alice. All I see out there is a bunch of
nasty green stuff and a lumpy hill off yonder in the distance."
Alice: "We're wasting our time at this place, Alex. Let's amble on down
to the cycads by the river and find us a stegosaur."
Alex: "Good idea! Hope it's not one of those Chinese stego- snacks,
though. I need something that'll last more than a couple of days."
[Alex turns away from the plains and back into the forest to follow
Alice.]
Alex [to himself, as he strides after Alice]: "Funny, I don't remember
there being any hills around here. I must be slipping. Guess I'd better stay
away from nibbling too many of those ugly furry critters that keep popping
up underfoot lately."
[Several meters to the West of the "lumpy hill" amidst the high yucky
green stuff on the open plain]: "Munch, munch. Yum, yum. Burp."
-= Tuck =- (With fulsome appologies to any of my revered ancestors who
enjoyed Shakespeare's plays in person at London's Globe Theatre before they
fled to the Colonies.)