RE: (arthritic) Sauropods vs. Gravity - all

["Williams, Tim" <TiJaWi@agron.iastate.edu>]

Nick Pharris wrote:

>Personally, I like the idea that a placental mammal the size of a
>sauropod could never reproduce, because the young would never fit >through
its mother's birth canal, due to scaling effects between adult >and infant
placental mammals.  

I would guess whales are the exception to this.

On the subject of large (very large) things from the sea, some live giant
squids have been caught off New Zealand.  Unfortunately, they're only
young'uns.  Still pretty neat though.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0203/06/world/world15.html


Tim


------------------------------------------------------------ 

Timothy J. Williams 

USDA-ARS Researcher 
Agronomy Hall 
Iowa State University 
Ames IA 50014 

Phone: 515 294 9233 
Fax:   515 294 3163