sauropod facultative sprawl?

["James Farlow" <farlow@ipfw.edu>]

> My question was how much else _was_ equal: were sauropods able
> to sprawl their forelimbs? Apparently, *Brachiosaurus* was the only one.

Well, maybe.  I wouldn't want to put TOO much weight on a single
deflected glenoid.  It could be pathology of the individual, or it
could be that Brachiosaurus just ossified more of what would be
cartilaginous in other sauropods.


Farlow:  Something that MAY/may NOT be related to this, but I mention in case 
it might be, is that many--but by no means all--sauropod trackways have 
forefoot (manus) prints of the left and right sides of the trackway whose 
centers  are routinely placed farther away from the trackway midline than are 
the centers of hindfoot (pes) tracks. There is more than one possible 
explanation for this, but one might be that the forelimbs of these animals were 
more flexed at the elbow than in sauropods with different trackway patterns.