Triceratops sprawl

[Jeffrey Martz <martz@holly.ColoState.EDU>]

     Here is a reposting of Ken Carpenters original response:

>First of all, Johnson did not mount the ribs on the specimen correctly. 
>Ribs do not extend perpendicular to the vertebral collumn, but are 
>angled back so that the ribcage functions as a bellows for getting air 
>in and out of the lungs. The way the ribs are mounted, the ribcage is 
>too wide and not bellows shaped. Second, the scapula-coracoid are 
>mounted too far back. As all naturally articulated dinosaur skeletons 
>show, the first dorsal rib bisects the scapula about midway along its 
>length. If the Torosaurus were mounted so that the ribcage was narrow 
>at the front and widen posteriorly (as in all living vertebrates), and 
>placing the scapula so that the first rib bissected it at the mid 
>point, the coracoids would be much, much closer (almost touching) and 
>the elbows would be brought in. See the Chasmosaurus mounted at the 
>Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. 

     No published references perhaps, but the fact is that the angle 
of the anterior ribs and alignment of the scapula on the sprawler were 
unnatural.  The correct orientation of the humerus relative to the scapula is 
not what is in doubt.  If the scapula is in the wrong place, the humerus 
will be as well even if its articulated correctly.        

LN Jeff