Head and Neck Posture in Sauropod Dinosaurs Inferred from Extant Animals

Taylor, Michael; Wedel, Mathew; Naish, Darren

doi:10.4202/app.2009.0007

Cited by 115 publications

(162 citation statements)

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“…Christian 2002; Dzemski & Christian 2007;Sander et al 2009;Seymour 2009a,b;Stevens & Parrish 1999;Taylor et al 2009), although the absence of peak stresses in the vertebrae indicates that the test scenarios would have been possible for these sauropods at least occasionally. The horizontal neck position tested here represents a case in which higher stresses act on the vertebrae compared to a more vertical neck position (Taylor et al 2009). This is because bending moments occurring in a horizontal neck are much weaker than in a vertical neck.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical implications of pneumatic neck vertebrae in sauropod dinosaurs

et al. 2009

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The pre-sacral vertebrae of most sauropod dinosaurs were surrounded by interconnected, air-filled diverticula, penetrating into the bones and creating an intricate internal cavity system within the vertebrae. Computational finite-element models of two sauropod cervical vertebrae now demonstrate the mechanical reason for vertebral pneumaticity. The analyses show that the structure of the cervical vertebrae leads to an even distribution of all occurring stress fields along the vertebrae, concentrated mainly on their external surface and the vertebral laminae. The regions between vertebral laminae and the interior part of the vertebral body including thin bony struts and septa are mostly unloaded and pneumatic structures are positioned in these regions of minimal stress. The morphology of sauropod cervical vertebrae was influenced by strongly segmented axial neck muscles, which require only small attachment areas on each vertebra, and pneumatic epithelia that are able to resorb bone that is not mechanically loaded. The interaction of these soft tissues with the bony tissue of the vertebrae produced lightweight, air-filled vertebrae in which most stresses were borne by the external cortical bone. Cervical pneumaticity was therefore an important prerequisite for neck enlargement in sauropods. Thus, we expect that vertebral pneumaticity in other parts of the body to have a similar role in enabling gigantism.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical implications of pneumatic neck vertebrae in sauropod dinosaurs

et al. 2009

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“…Neural spine bifurcation. As most recently documented by Woodruff (2016) and echoed and noted by others, neural spine bifurcation is a complex vertebral adaptation (Thompson, 1942;BorsukBialynicka, 1977;Bakker, 1986;Salgado and Bonaparte, 1991;Parrish, 1999, 2005a;Dodson and Harris, 2001;Christian, 2002;Tsuihiji, 2004;Schwarz et al, 2007a;Senter, 2007;Schwarz-Wings and Frey, 2008;Seymour, 2009;Schwarz-Wings, 2009;Taylor et al, 2009;Wedel and Taylor, 2013). While there is a general consensus for a biomechanical origin, how (and if) it develops is a more contentious point.…”

Section: Morphologic Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

A new multi-faceted framework for deciphering diplodocid ontogeny

Woodruff

Fowler²,

Horner

2017

Palaeontologia Electronica

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“…Diplodocus carnegii head, neck and anterior torso, right lateral view, articulated in habitual posture as hypothesised by Taylor et al (2009). Skull and vertebrae from Hatcher (1901).…”

Section: So Why Did We Do This?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…

Let's assume for a moment that you accept our contention (Taylor et al 2009) that, since extant terrestrial tetrapods habitually hold their necks in maximal extension, sauropods did the same. That still leaves the question of why we have the neck of our Diplodocus reconstruction at a steep 45-degree angle rather than the very gentle elevation that Stevens and Parrish's (1999) DinoMorph project permits.

As a reminder, here is fig.

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confidence: 99%

Range of motion in intervertebral joints: why we don’t trust DinoMorph

Taylor

2012

Nature Precedings

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Let's assume for a moment that you accept our contention (Taylor et al. 2009) that, since extant terrestrial tetrapods habitually hold their necks in maximal extension, sauropods did the same. That still leaves the question of why we have the neck of our Diplodocus reconstruction at a steep 45-degree angle rather than the very gentle elevation that Stevens and Parrish's (1999) DinoMorph project permits.As a reminder, here is fig. 6A of Stevens (2002), a paper on the computer science behind DinoMorph which used exactly the same models as the 1999 study but which conveniently illustrates them in lateral view: Stevens (2002: fig. 6A), illustrating the fully extended, neutral and fully flexed poses attainable by Diplodocus according to the original DinoMorph model.

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Head and Neck Posture in Sauropod Dinosaurs Inferred from Extant Animals

Abstract: The neck posture of sauropod dinosaurs has long been controversial. Recent

Cited by 115 publications

References 19 publications

Mechanical implications of pneumatic neck vertebrae in sauropod dinosaurs

Mechanical implications of pneumatic neck vertebrae in sauropod dinosaurs

A new multi-faceted framework for deciphering diplodocid ontogeny

Range of motion in intervertebral joints: why we don’t trust DinoMorph

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