SAUROPOD DINOSAURS AND GIGANTISM: A REPORT OF AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

摘要

The herbivorous Sauropod dinosaurs of the Jurassic period, about 140 - 210 million years before present (mybp), were the largest land animals that ever lived. This presentation is in part a report of the symposium on Sauropods held at the University of Bonn, Germany in November, 2008. The conference was attended by a group of specialists addressing the issues of size, activity, blood pressure, digestive physiology, and diet of these creatures. Since no modern land animals of such size exist today, extrapolations from the largest and tallest contemporary herbivores, elephants and giraffes, were used to model the Sauropods. Recent discoveries in Patagonia have found even larger Sauropods (Argentinosaurus), exceeding 120 feet head to tail and weighingan estimated 100 metric tons. Footprints of related Sauropods have been found in Chile measuring 2 - 21/2 feet in length with an estimated thigh bone size at 10 -12 feet (Kissel, 2007; Moreno and Benton, 2005).