*Brachiosaurus* labyrinth paper...

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

I'm currently reading the must-read

Andreas Christian: Neck posture and overall body design in sauropods, 
Mitteilungen des Museums für Naturkunde Berlin, Geowissenschaftliche Reihe 
5, 271 -- 281 (10 November 2002).

I'll summarize it later, assuming I'll find the time between all those 
stupid exams <insert lamentation about professors incapable of teaching> and 
before I'll go to Paris to write my Master's Thesis on July 7th. Anyway, 
Christian cites

H.-C. Gunga & K. Kirsch: Von Hochleistungsherzen und wackeligen Hälsen 
[About high-performance hearts and wobbly necks], Forschung [Research] 2 --  
3, 4 -- 9 (2001)

which is said to conclude from a study of the labyrinth of *Brachiosaurus* 
that the neck posture of the beast varied between vertical and more or less 
horizontal.

Christian also finds a vertical posture for *B.*, but horizontal postures 
for *Diplodocus* and *Dicraeosaurus*, based on the calculated pressures on 
their intervertebral discs. His method is not influenced by systematic 
errors, so the actual weight of the neck doesn't matter, just the relative 
weights of its segments.