Re: rearing browsers

["Tim Williams" <T.Williams@cclru.randwick.unsw.edu.au>]

Nick Longrich wrote:

>     Very interesting. McIntosh says the same happened with diplodocid 
> necks- they pulled vertebrae out of the back and into the neck to get a 
> longer neck.

So did a whole host of Chinese sauropods - Euhelopus, Mamenchisaurus, 
Omeisaurus, Klamelisaurus, Nurosaurus - all to a greater extent than 
the diplodocids.  But I never saw the connection between increased 
number of cervicals (at the expense of the dorsals) and a tripodal 
stance.

Speaking of Jack McIntosh's chapter on Sauropods in The Dinosauria, 
he also mentioned that the only anterior caudal vertebra known for 
Patagosaurus (Middle Jurassic, Argentina) was procoelous.  Could it be 
an early titanosaur?