RE: Sauropod necks and rearing

["Tracy L. Ford" <dino.hunter@home.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of Ken
Kinman
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 5:07 AM
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Re: Sauropod necks and rearing

    For me the question is not whether they could rear up (there is little
doubt that they could).  The question is how often and under what
circumstances the big sauropods would use that ability.  It seems pretty
safe to assume that they would do so when aroused by fear or the mating
urge.<<

Well, I agree, why and under what circumstances would they need to.

  >>   But would a big sauropod rear up sort of like a begging puppy dog in
the way that was shown in the early part of Jurassic Park?  Wouldn't natural
selection tend to weed out those sauropods who reared up more often (or more
vertically) than was necessary?  I can see a male sauropod perhaps doing
that to intimidate another male, or a female trying to intimidate a predator
threatening her offspring.  But the Jurassic Park scene just didn't ring
true for me, and seemed contrived and forced like a circus animal performing
a trick.  The movie-makers did not provide any good motivation for the
sauropod to act in that manner.
            ------- Ken<<

Well, to quote Jack Horner in a recent interview I did with him about
Jurassic Park III, It's just a movie, not scientific dogma, get over it (ok,
he didn't say get over it, but you know that's what he was thinking, and
this is like Shatner in the SNL Star Trek Convention skit).

I've recently been thinking about the Jurassic Park movies, and you now
what. I don't want them to get it 100% right. Why? So we don't continue
discussions like this :)
They're movie monsters and should be that way. (This is in no way against
you Ken, so please don't take it as such)

Now Documentaries, that's a totally different matter...

Tracy L. Ford
P. O. Box 1171
Poway Ca  92074