RE: Could a sauropods shift lungs forward to make his front lighter for reaching up 'tre trunks'?

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

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] 
> On Behalf Of Janet m vandenburgh
>
> 
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080313124451.htm
> 
> Alligators' Muscles Move Lungs Around For Sneaky Maneuvers In 
> Water (March 14, 2008) -- Without a ripple in the water, 
> alligators dive, surface or roll sideways, even though they 
> lack flippers or fins. Biologists have discovered alligators 
> maneuver silently by using their diaphragm, pelvic, abdominal 
> and rib muscles to shift their lungs like internal flotation 
> devices: toward the tail when they dive, toward the head when 
> they surface and sideways when they roll. ... > full story
> 
> http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/uou-har_1030708.php

While this wouldn't work for sauropods (probably rigid lungs, and definite
air sac system), it is yet another nice aspect of the mobile pubis/hepatic
piston mechanism within Crocodyliformes.

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