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DINOSAUR ANATOMY AND BEHAVIOR |
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| General Anatomy | Size | Teeth | Herds, Packs | Offense | Defense | Reproduction, Nests & Eggs | Blood Pressure |
| Skeleton | Tails | Brains | Male or Female? | Skin | Diet | Locomotion | Life Span | Hot or Cold Blooded? |
most dinosaur tails counterbalanced a long neck or a large, heavy head. Until a few years ago, people thought that dinosaurs dragged their tails on the ground, serving to do little but making locomotion difficult. This seemed pointless and ignored the fact that the large mass at the front of the dinosaur's body (neck and head) had to be counterbalanced or else the animal would tip over!
The tails of some dinosaurs could be useful in attaining a tripod stance, which was probably used to forage very tall vegetation and for mating.
Some dinosaurs needed to run speedily and to be able to turn quickly, either to catch prey or avoid predators. In order to turn quickly while running, the tail's movement can shift the runner's direction, allowing swift turns.
Ankylosaurids (like Euoplocephalus and Ankylosaurus) had bony nodules at the end of their tails that could easily have been used for defense, which would have been useful for these lumbering, plated grazers. Also, some theropods, like Shunosaurus, Omeisaurus and maybe Mamenchisaurus had tail clubs for protection.
In 1961, the British zoologist R. McNeill Alexander proposed the idea that some sauropods may have used their massive tails as a whip to lash at their attackers. This theory seems unlikely given the amount of physiological damage to tail tissue that would be caused by the sudden acceleration near the end of the tail (and the deceleration upon impact). Also, the large sauropods probably grazed on tree leaves, giving them no room to whip their tail around without hitting tree trunks and getting severe tail damage. In addition, the amount of time to get a nerve message from the head to the base of the tail (a distance of up to 50 feet, 15 m) would delay the attack considerably. Nerve impulses in humans travel at around 3 - 4 meters/second. If dinosaurs could match this rate of transmission, the time for a nerve impulse to travel from the head to the base of the tail would be about 4 - 5 seconds. Add to this the time to start the whip-like motion and the swift meat-eater would probably already have taken a big bite of Diplodocus.
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DINOSAUR ANATOMY AND BEHAVIOR |
|
| General Anatomy | Size | Teeth | Herds, Packs | Offense | Defense | Reproduction, Nests & Eggs | Blood Pressure |
| Skeleton | Tails | Brains | Male or Female? | Skin | Diet | Locomotion | Life Span | Hot or Cold Blooded? |
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