RE: sauropods' lifespan

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] 
> On Behalf Of Jura
>
> > >> Living up to 100 years - just a popular-science
> > guess or any
> > >> _references_ for such a statement?
> > >> Cheers, David
> > >
> > > In fact, there is no evidence that sauropods lived
> > longer than ~50 years or
> > > so:
> > > Sander, P.M. 2000. Longbone histology of the
> > Tendaguru sauropods:
> > > implications for growth and biology. Paleobiology
> > 26:466-488.
> > 
> > Around 50 years? Even the really large ones? That's some 
> growth rate.
> 
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 
> To heck with the growth rate, if the 50 year limit applies to 
> all the large sauropods, then that makes for a remarkably 
> craptacular lifespan. 
> 
> Even (relatively) puny elephants beat that number out at 70 years.
> 
> Which says nothing for bicentennial whales.

Yes, but elephants and whales suffer from the craptacular placental mode of
reproduction, so they have to invest a HUGE amount of resources over long
periods of time to increase the survival chance of a few offspring.

Sauropods, on the other hand, can use the shotgun approach...

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
Fax: 301-405-0796

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
                        Building 237, Room 1117
                        University of Maryland
                        College Park, MD 20742 USA