Re: sauropod feeding dogma*

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

> A good thought, but, since the forelimbs of most diplodocids were rather 
> shorter than the hindlimbs, the neck actually pointed somewhat 
> *downwards* from the shoulder.  To raise its head, the animal would have 
> to counteract this initial downbend, and it most likely could not get its 
> head much higher than the level of its back.  Bear in mind that the neck 
> of, say, _Diplodocus_ was long largely because the cervical centra were 
> long.  The neck was not all that flexible.

     When Ken Carpenter played around with the cervicals when he 
remounted DMNH's Diplodocus, he found that there is actually a high 
degree of flexibility.  The head could be raised quite high, and curved 
downward almost far enough to have the head upside down.
     I don't see a low held neck as being a serious liability.  The 
neck is no more vulnerable to theropod attack that any other part of 
the body. within a meat eating dinosaur's reach.         

LN Jeff, Y.S.  0-
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