DEAD ELEPHANTS

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

Darren Tanke noted that none of the dead elephants in Beard's 
book 'The End of the Game' are seen to lie on their sides. My primary 
source for the 'orientiation' of dead elephants (some of you at SVP 
may recall me postulating a link between handedness and which side 
an animal lies down on when moribund) was Clive Spinage's excellent 
_Elephants_, one of the Poyser Natural History books. In this text 
Spinage discusses elephant taphonomy and includes his thoughts on how 
it apparently relates to handedness. 

Beard's other book., _Eyelids of Morning_, is even more interesting 
in its many many photos of dead crocodiles. It's also of special 
esoteric interest in including a photo of a kuri cattle eating 
waterplants while submerged up to its neck. This is interesting 
because, as discussed in some of the arcane zoological literature, 
whether or not kuri cattle do actually swim and feed in water as much 
as has traditionally been implied is under suspicion. At least.. I 
think the animal in _Eyelids of Morning_ is a kuri cattle....

"Everyone can do whatever they want - but we will kill those who 
don't"

DARREN NAISH 
PALAEOBIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
School of Earth, Environmental & Physical Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
Burnaby Building
Burnaby Road                           email: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
Portsmouth UK                          tel: 01703 446718
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http://www.naish-zoology.com]