Tipsy punters: sauropod dinosaur pneumaticity, buoyancy and aquatic habits

Abstract

Sauropod dinosaurs were the largest terrestrial animals to have ever existed, and are difficult to interpret as living animals owing to their lack of living descendants. With computer models that employ the basic physics of buoyancy and equilibrium, it is possible to investigate how the bodies of these animals would have reacted when immersed in water. Multi-tonne sauropods are found to be extremely buoyant and unstable in water when aspects of their probable respiratory anatomy are considered, which obviates the old problem of them being unable to breathe when fully immersed. Interpretations of 'manus-only' trackways made by floating sauropods will depend on the details of buoyancy as not all sauropods float in the same manner.

An Unusual New Neosauropod Dinosaur From the Lower Cretaceous Hastings Beds Group of East Sussex, England

“…1985), 31,500 kg (Paul 1988), 74,420 kg (Gunga et al . 1995), 37,400 kg (Christiansen 1997) and 25,789 kg (Henderson 2004). Of these estimates, those of Russell et al .…”

The socio-sexual behaviour of extant archosaurs: implications for understanding dinosaur behaviour

“…Lockley 1991) which sedimentological evaluation indications were created when the area was covered by water (Pittman 1989). The conclusion is that saurpod dinosaurs could have submerged and walked in water at the very least as deep as their chest height (Henderson 2003;Stokstad 2003).…”

“…Henderson (2003) employed computer models that incorporate the basic physics of buoyancy and equilibrium to study how bodies react when immersed in water. Sauropods have a highly pneumatised axial skeleton and system of thoracic and abdominal airsacs that both act to reduce their density to about 80% that of water.…”

Sauropod dinosaur research: a historical review

“…Jensen (1985) formally described and named three new giant sauropods, although he had been referring to them informally in print since the late 1970s: Supersaurus Jensen 1985, Dystylosaurus Jensen 1985and Ultrasaurus Jensen 1985. These attracted much media attention because of the enormous sizes attributed to them: in particular, Colbert (1962) Displacement of sand 86 953 0.9 78 258 Russell et al (1980) Limb-bone allometry --13 618* Anderson et al (1985) Limb-bone allometry --29 000 Paul (1988a) Displacement of water 36 585 0.861 † 31 500 Alexander (1989) ‡ Weighing in air and water 46 600 1.0 46 600 Gunga et al (1995) Computer model 74 420 1.0 74 420 Christiansen (1997) Weighing in air and water 41 556 0.9 37 400 Henderson (2004) Computer model 32 398 0.796 25 789 Henderson (2006) Computer model --25 922 Gunga et al (2008) Computer model 47 600 0.8 38 000 Taylor (2009) Graphic double integration 29 171 0.8 23 337 *Russell et al give the mass as '14.9 t', which has usually been interpreted as representing metric tonnes, for example, 14 900 kg. However, they cite 'the generally accepted figure of 85 tons' (p. 170), which can only be a reference to Colbert (1962 Paul used a density of 0.9 kg L 21 for most of the model and 0.6 kg L 21 for the neck, which was measured separately and found to constitute 13% of the total volume, yielding an aggregate density of (0.9 Â 87%) þ (0.6 Â 13%) ¼ 0.…”