Re: Not dinosaurs

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 96-01-26 19:25:14 EST, darwincr@laplaza.taos.nm.us (JCMcL)
writes:

>Right; surface area of radiating organs compared to body volume as a 
>whole, I think.  My question is, why would the long sauropod tail (in 
>addition to the neck) not be an aid to cooling the vast bod, much as 
>elephant ears are an aid to cooling these admittedly smaller but still 
>rather hefty organisms?  
>
>I think, George, that you suggested that the surface area of the sauropod 
>tail is too small to have aided in cooling.  I lack this certainty, and 
>am interested to note the frequency with which long long tails show up in 
>these large beasts.  

The surface area of the tail relative to the volume of the tail is too small
to have been on much assistance. Indeed, as someone else has already pointed
out, in a cylindrical or conical tail, the cross-sections are roughly
circular and therefore _minimize_ the surface area of the whole tail. When
you want a heat radiator (or absorber), you want to maximize the area of the
radiator/absorber relative to the volume of the radiator/absorber, not the
volume of the body as a whole.

If you were to insist on the latter, your sauropods would have to become
flat, like giant pancakes or cardboard cutouts. This would maximize the ratio
of area to volume of the sauropod as a whole.

A sauropod tail did not have enough surface area for the amount of blood it
could have contained to have been a good heat radiator/absorber. Undoubtedly,
there was _some_ effect, but it was probably not significantly greater than
the heat lost or gained through the other extremities, namely, the legs and
neck.