Re: supersaurus tail thingy

[John Schneiderman <jschneiderman@revelation.lib.unomaha.edu>]

On the same line, is it possible that the club-like tail feature found in
the Chinese Omeisaurus may also be a "popper"?  The club-like feature a
product of fossilization.


John Schneiderman

> >      It's only been a few hours and I've had two questions about the 
> > "plume" 
> > at the end of the tail on the _supersaurus_.  The anatomy in question is a 
> > "popper."  As many of you know, Nathan Myhrvold and Phil Currie did a 
> > simulation that suggested that diplodocids could crack their tails, 
> > breaking 
> > the sound barrier at the tip.  In that same paper they suggested that some 
> > sort of "popper" would greatly increase the amount of kinetic energy 
> > released.  The idea of sound as a weapon intrigued me, and since I was 
> > speculating that a row of Czerkas-Diplodicus like keratin spines were 
> > running down the midline, I simply exaggerated the last one into a 
> > functional popper.
> >      This is of course speculative, so I'll give full permission for 
> > dissenters to bring the file into Photoshop and remove the offending popper 
> > if they like ;)
> > 
> > 
> 
> I always assumed that the "popper" would be a club-like apparatus of some 
> sort, perhaps a hard keratin spine, rather than a "sail" like it looks in 
> your drawing.  But your rendition looks good and is perfectly acceptable:)  
> It's not offending in any way.
>