Re: Dinosaurs Breathed Like Birds

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

David Marjanovic wrote:

> > <I like the hard to pronounce names like Op[i]sthocoelicaudia as long as
> > the mean something. (posterior cavity tail referring to it's bizarre
> > rigid tail)
>
> Bizarre for sure, but isn't it supposed to have been more mobile than if 
> the
> proximal and distal faces of the centra would have been flat?

I would have said so.  Opisthocoelous is the procoelous condition in reverse 
- the ball-and-cup articulations are common to both.  The opisthocoelous 
condition refers to the cup on the back side of the centrum, which 
articulated with the ball-like front side of the next centrum.  
_Opisthocoelicaudia_ possessed the opisthocoelous condition for much of the 
length of the tail, including the beginning.  _Opisthocoelicaudia_ was not 
the only titanosaur to have at least one opisthocoelous caudal vertebra; 
this is also seen in _Rinconsaurus_ and _Borealosaurus_.

One Asian sauropod was to be named "Amphicoelicaudia".

> Marsh was Othniel Charles, not Charles Othniel... but of course Charles and
> Edward used to be rather common names, while there aren't so many Othniels
> and Drinkers around as to produce potential confusion... pun inevitable...

Apparently Marsh hated the name 'Othniel'.

Cheers

Tim