Re: (sigh)sauropod necks again--long! -Reply

[Richard W Travsky <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Tue, 25 May 1999, Augustus Toby White wrote:
> [...]
> Which raises another a priori biophysical problem. (Yes, it rears its
> ugly head.)  The benefit from rearing up has to be quite high because
> the price of falling would be steep.  It's the tumbling T. rex problem
> in spades.  A mouse can fall many times its height.  A human can usually
> fall its own height, but not always (I dislocated an elbow once that
> way).  A sauropod?  Don't even think about it.  If it reared up, the
> mechanism would have to have been be nearly 100% stable and the benefit
> very high or the behavior simply wouldn't have been worth the risk. 

Wouldn't the mechanics of mating sorta require some rearing capability?


rich