RE: Sauropod Necks As Weapons

["Jordan Mallon" <j_mallon@hotmail.com>]

Dann Pigdon wrote:

>Of course giraffes don't have a large heavy tail, and perhaps if they
>did, they wouldn't use their heads for defence quite so much.

This reminds me of something I read in Crichton's Lost World a few years
ago.  One of the characters in the book suggests that perhaps some
sauropods grew such long necks in order to counterbalance their long,
whip-like tails, and not _vice versa_.  Has there been any serious
thought given to this?  Or is it even something to be taken seriously?

Jordan Mallon

Undergraduate Student, Carleton University
Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoecology

Website: http://www.geocities.com/paleoportfolio/
AIM: jslice mallon