Re: [dinosaur] Submerged sauropods

They would likely not have been able to inspire when their lungs were more
than a meter below the surface of the water — at least, that's the
conclusion from Kermack.

(I wonder how far below the surface the lungs of big whales are.)

-- Mike.


On Thu, 10 Oct 2019 at 22:49, Dann Pigdon <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> On Thu, Oct 10th, 2019 at 11:22 PM, Mike Taylor <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> > Kermack's reasoning is rock-solid, and there is essentially no
> possibility
> > of snorkelling sauropods. As Kermack himself noted in the closing words
> of
> > his paper, "If the sauropods were, in fact, aquatic, they probably lived
> > much the same sort of life as the present-day Hippopotamus, swimming and
> > diving in the water, and walking along the bottom. To breathe, however,
> > they would have needed to raise their body nearly, if not quite, to the
> > surface."
> >
> > -- Mike.
>
> It makes you wonder how elasmosaurids or tanystropheids managed to
> breathe. Would they have needed
> to surface completely with their bodies held horizontal?
>
> --
> Dann Pigdon
>
>