RE: Bipedal apatosaurs and stegosaurs?

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

Peter Buchholz wrote:

> Exactly.  Another point I'd like to make, that I tried to make in an
> earlier post, is that it is absolutely not space efficient in a
> semi-dense to dense forest to be a Diplodocoid walking around on all
> fours.  

1.  Nobody has any idea how dense the forest was (or how large the trees 
were) in ANY sauropod inhabited environment.  

2.  Sauropods had long but very FLEXIBLE necks and tails.  Why would they 
have had a problem manuvering around trees?  I think that saying they 
couldn't have moved around in a forest on all fours is like saying an 
anaconda couldn't possibly inhabit a jungle because it is longer than the 
distance between trees.  The only really limiting factor for a sauropod 
would be the WIDTH of its body, and bipedal walking certainly wouldn't 
fix that.

3.  The front legs of sauropods are pretty massively built, with big 
scapulae.  It would be kind of an overkill in design if all they were 
doing with thier legs was steadying themselves against trees.

LN Jeff      
"You're out of your tree."
"Its not my tree."