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Dinosaur Blood Pressure

Brachiosaurus and other Long-Necked Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs
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The heads (and brains) of the long-necked dinosaurs were held high above their hearts. In the larger sauropods, the head could be up to 26 feet (8 m) above the heart! This presents a problem in blood-flow engineering. Paleontologists use giraffes as models to estimate Brachiosaurus blood flow. Brachiosaurus’ neck articulation was more vertical (giraffe-like) than a lot of other sauropods, and could feed at heights of about 30 feet.

In order to pump enough oxygenated blood to the head to operate a Brachiosaurus’ brain (even this tiny sauropod brain) would require:

A large, powerful heart
A heart weighing about 880 pounds (400 kg) would be needed to pump blood up the huge blood vessels at high pressure.
Tremendous blood pressure
It has been estimated that large sauropods needed a pumping (systolic) blood pressure of over 600 mm of Hg (Mercury). In contrast, most mammals (including people) have systolic pressure of about 100 - 150 mm of Hg. Even the giraffes only have a systolic pressure of about 300 mm of Hg.
Huge, muscular blood vessels
Very wide arteries would be necessary to contain neck blood flow. These vessels would need many one-way valves to keep the blood from flowing back down again before reaching the top. Also, when the neck bends downwards, too much back-flow of blood to the head would necessitate one-way valves in the veins.
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