Sauropod eating habits

One thing I've noticed throughout this thread is how many people claim a sauropod would strip the land bare. Do we have any honest estimates of sauropod consumption? They're are not mammals after all and would possibly (this is a guess) eat about as much as an elephant. Elepants are very harsh on the landscape, and can actualy terra-form it, but they do live in a very harsh envirmoment.

From everything I can see the Jurassic landscape was quiet lush (though a little hot) and would have provided plaenty off food. Extended feeding would indeed strip a land scape, but just how long would they be in the area? A month? A good sized forest would have no problems with a sauropod herd with an archosaurian diet.

Has anyone ever done studies on the few herbiverous reptiles alive today and their consumption rates against herbiverous mammals of the same size? This may be the only way to truly get an idea of just how much (or little) a sauropod ate. I gues at the end of the day, they did have tiny heads, perhaps they didn't need to eat as much as we think (though I'm sure it would still be an astronimical amount)

Just a thought.
Phil Hore

National Dinosaur Museum

Canberra, Australia

ph (02) 62302655

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>From: "Richard W. Travsky" >Reply-To: rtravsky@uwyo.edu >To: dinosaur@usc.edu >Subject: Re: Sauroparental care >Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 08:09:42 -0700 (MST) > >On Tue, 23 Dec 2003, Graydon wrote: > > [...] > > > > Straight R strategy, lay'em and leave'em. > > [...] > > > > Parental care has a cost. This cost is not obviously, or always, lower > > than the cost of producing lots and lots of offspring. > > [...] > > > > A species would give up parental care if, as a matter of statistical > > averages, more offspring got into the future where they themselves > > survived to breed from more R-strategist parents than more K-strategist > > parents -- if the survival chances are even very marginally higher for >! ; ! ! > producing 80 eggs and walking away instead of 50, and stepping on some > > of the offspring, say. > >One thought that occurred to me is that, for sauropods at least, is that >creatures that size would need a great deal of food themselves. Would they >not strip the immediate area if they were hanging around to provide care? > > > [...] >