Dinosaur Posture Still Wrong, Says Study 226
An anonymous reader sends along a piece in Cosmos about new dissension to the current prevailing wisdom on dinosaur posture. The researchers admit that blood pressure presents an unresolved obstacle to their model of dinosaur heads held high. "The current depiction of the way giant sauropod dinosaurs held their necks is probably wrong, says a new study. 'For the last decade the reigning paradigm in palaeontology has been that the big sauropod dinosaurs held their necks out straight and their heads down low,' said co-author Matt Wedel, who researches biomechanics at the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California. But 'our research [now] suggests that this view of sauropods is simply incorrect, based on everything we know about living animals,' he said." The researchers worried that some other team might beat them to publication, so obvious did they consider their methodology of looking at living animals to gain insight into the biomechanics of extinct ones.
AW... (Score:5, Funny)
Guess this means there was no Stuckupasaurus? You know, the snooty dinosaur who thought it was better than all the others and walked around holding its head high and looking down its nose at the others? ...ok, wow, THAT was lame.
I apologize.
Oh, come on (Score:5, Funny)
It was only 6000 years ago -- didn't anyone get any pictures?
Listen to your mother. (Score:5, Funny)
Sit up straight! Eat your palm trees! Don't ROAR at your sister! Ignore those tiny furry mousey creatures...they are of no consequenc and won't amount to anything!
Re:I'm horny (Score:3, Funny)
...brings a whole new meaning to "multi-touch"... and, no.
Straighten up and fly right! (Score:3, Funny)
That's going to kill my karma, but I thought it was funny.
Re:until you CLONE THEM! - Nope (Score:3, Funny)
I don't know about yours, but my time machine only goes back to 4004 B.C.
Occams razor tells me (Score:3, Funny)
The long necked dinosaurs simply tied their long necks into a knot whenever they needed to raise their heads for feeding and observations.
They had a symbiotic relationship with the horned dinosaurs who were needed for untieing the knots.
Coiled up on top (Score:5, Funny)
Come on people, CLEARLY the large long-necked dinosaurs kept their necks curled back and their heads resting on top of their backs.
Re:Two Things (Score:3, Funny)
Well, then cloning have given us a cool dinosaur that we could use both to fix our lawns and to trim our trees! Multipurpose dino.
Re:I'm horny (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Listen to your mother. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:geese (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, I know it's dangerous, which is why I only make that comparison in a hardened secret laboratory. Last time I tried it, the explosion nearly blew through the 2nd-level blast enclosure.
Seriously, though, modern birds may be the closes living relatives to dinosaurs. And while I'd very strongly suspect that the long neck of geese evolved independently of the long necks of sauropods, it may be relevant.
Yes, this is an ongoing issue, and one of the primary reasons the position du jour has been lowered-head. But there is a ton we don't know about dino biology, and it is quite possible there are alternate means of pumping blood up the column (such as smooth-muscled vasculature that could help pump, especially in concert with valves like those in giraffes and other animals used to cut off blood flow temporarily. Or perhaps blood demands are low, and periodic lowering of the head could supply enough oxygen et al for survival. It's all conjecture... but it still makes me wonder if the net energy demands of maintaining a horizontal position would be greater than the demands of pumping blood and keeping the vertebrae vertical.
Hey, I never made a value judgment on the quality of the article. :) I just meant that typically the article being available for perusal guides the discussion somewhat... without TFA, the discussion tends to be more freeform and devolve into inanity quicker. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Re:TFA Is slashdotted (Score:5, Funny)
Well that's simple, just change the gravitational constant of the universe.
Re:TFA Is slashdotted (Score:5, Funny)
I can't did up the reference right now, but it turns out the eneregy requirements for maintaining the long neck outweigh the cost of simply walking to the food.
Meaning dinosaurs did not have long necks. QED.