Cracking the whip

摘要

Male sauropod dinosaurs wooed their lovers and intimidated their rivals by cracking their tails like huge bullwhips. Or so says Microsoft's research supremo, Nathan Myhrvold. Myhrvold's excursions into palaeontology have generated a number of articles in the popular press. Now, with the publication of his work on dinosaur tails in the latest issue of Paleobiology (vol 23, p 353), he has won recognition from professional palaeontologists.