Did
Sauropods Sprawl?
Incredibly,
a hundred and fifty years after dinosaurs were first reconstructed like lizards,
this debate had still not been put to rest.
It
has been argued that the footrpints of sauropods show that the "hands"
are rotated inwards so that the toes point to each other a little (called pronation).
Humans
can pronate their hands while keeping the arm straight because we are able to
twist and cross our radius and ulna in the forearm. It has been said that dinosaurs
could not do this. The argument is that this rotation is most likely achieved
by the bending of the dinosurs elbows.
The
counter to this is that firstly, the stresses to the forelimbs would be tremendous.
Secondly, the shoulders do not seem to work correctly to fit an arm which is in
a sprawled position.
The
main problem I have personally is that there is clealy no difference in track-width
between front and hind limbs. There would be a noticable distance between the
"hands" if they were sprawled.
A
point from another quarter is that there is that the are no known sauropod
trackways which show rotation of the hands! I am therefore interested in seeing
photos of the alleged pronated footprints before I begin to believe in the "pronation=sprawling"
theory.
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