RE: Bipedal apatosaurs and stegosaurs?

[Stan Friesen <swf@ElSegundoCA.NCR.COM>]

Rob Meyerson wrote:

 > Even among the diplodicids, I have a hard time seeing a herd of the big ones
 >  all rearing up to feed on the tops of the pines.  The loss of efficiency
 >  aside,

I am unsure of how great the loss of efficiency would be.

I think if they ingested large quantyities of foliage each time they
reared up the loss would be *relatively* small.

 > this kind of posture would make these animals more susceptable (sp?)
 >  to predation.  Imagine a Diplodicus reared up, with it's head in the
 >  stratosphere.  Along comes a hungry Allosaurus.  Even if the Diplo saw the
 >  theropod coming, it would take a lot of precious time for the animal to get
 >  all feet on the ground and to engage it's tail for combat.

Why bother - just bring the front feet down on top of the nasty little
allosaur! Really, given the large size disparity, the front feet of
a rearing diplodocid would be higher than the back of any known allosaur.

In fact, this may well have been a more effective defense mode for
a thin-tailed Diplodocus than using its tail anyway.

swf@elsegundoca.ncr.com         sarima@ix.netcom.com

The peace of God be with you.