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Sauropod necks
Topic Started: Jul 4 2015, 12:41 PM (906 Views)
Agentjaguar
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Herbivore
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There's actually NO evidence to suggest that some sauropods held their necks in an upright vertical position. The size of their hearts would have to be incredibly massive coupled with very high blood pressures to pump blood up a vertical neck. It's simply not anatomically advantageous.

Horizontal necks make more sense.

Posted Image

^ that probably never existed.
Edited by Agentjaguar, Jul 4 2015, 12:43 PM.
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Delude
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Unicellular Organism
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Agentjaguar
Jul 4 2015, 12:41 PM
There's actually NO evidence to suggest that some sauropods held their necks in an upright vertical position. The size of their hearts would have to be incredibly massive coupled with very high blood pressures to pump blood up a vertical neck. It's simply not anatomically advantageous.

Horizontal necks make more sense.

Posted Image

^ that probably never existed.
While I agree that it would be difficult anatomically for an animal to support such a configuration as you speak of (the image in your post isn't working currently), there certainly would be advantages.

Are you certain there's no evidence of it, though? I can't imagine paleontologists would continue to reconstruct animals that way if it wasn't viable, or somehow implied by their findings. Then again I've done relatively little personal research on sauropods.
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theropod
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palaeontology, open source and survival enthusiast
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If vertical necks were so disadvantageous, why do most mammals and birds with long necks hold them vertically, not horizontally?

And yes, there is evidence that sauropods held their necks upright:
http://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app54/app54-213.pdf
http://svpow.com/2009/05/27/sauropods-held-their-necks-erect-just-like-rabbits/
http://svpow.com/2014/11/05/sauropods-neutral-neck-postures-were-really-weird/
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0078214

In terms of blood flow, sure, this would require a very strong heart. I don’t see any problem with that, giraffes do the same thing. There are also benefits, such as the improved ability to feed on tall vegetation and the reduced muscular effort involved in supporting a vertical neck.

The debate isn’t over yet, but this neck posture makes a lot of sense for many sauropods.
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J3st3r56
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I personally find it hard to believe that a sauropod would hold its neck horizontal or vertical all of the time, it could provide unnecessary strain on the animal, i think its more believable to believe that sauropods held their necks at some where around the 45 degree mark to get the most out of their environments.
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DinosaurFan95
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You have to factor in weight, even with the vertebrae being hollowed out, you still have to take into account the weight of the veins, arteries, espohogus and flesh that made up the rest of the neck. Vertical or near vertical positions were probibly used only sparingly, when the only food was out of reach of the normal posture. As for Brachiosaurids, the neck probibly sat at a default 45 degrees, unless we are to assume less, in which case Brachiosaurids walked around with a "kink" where the neck met the body.
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