List of Contributors
Preface
List of Institutional Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Sauropod Biology and the Evolution of Gigantism: What Do We
Know? / Marcus Clauss
Part 1. Nutrition
2. Sauropod Feeding and Digestive Physiology / Jürgen Hummel and
Marcus Clauss
3. Dietary Options for the Sauropod Dinosaurs from an Integrated
Botanical and Paleobotanical Perspective / Carole T. Gee
4. The Diet of Sauropod Dinosaurs: Implications of Carbon Isotope
Analysis on Teeth, Bones, and Plants / Thomas Tütken
Part 2. Physiology
5. Structure and Function of the Sauropod Respiratory System /
Steven F. Perry, Thomas Breuer, and Nadine Pajor
6. Reconstructing Body Volume and Surface Area of Dinosaurs Using
Laser Scanning and Photogrammetry / Stefan Stoinski, Tim Suthau,
and Hanns-Christian Gunga
7. Body Mass Estimation, Thermoregulation, and Cardiovascular
Physiology of Large Sauropods / Bergita Ganse, Alexander Stahn,
Stefan Stoinski, Tim Suthau, and Hanns-Christian Gunga
Part 3. Construction
8. How to Get Big in the Mesozoic: The Evolution of the
Sauropodomorph Body Plan / Oliver W. M. Rauhut, Regina Fechner,
Kristian Remes, and Katrin Reis
9. Characterization of Sauropod Bone Structure / Maïtena Dumont,
Anke Pyzalla, Aleksander Kostka, and Andras Borbély
10. Finite Element Analyses and Virtual Syntheses of Biological
Structures and Their Application to Sauropod Skulls / Ulrich
Witzel, Julia Mannhardt, Rainer Goessling, Pascal de Micheli, and
Holger Preuschoft
11. Walking with the Shoulder of Giants: Biomechanical Conditions
in the Tetrapod Shoulder Girdle as a Basis for Sauropod Shoulder
Reconstruction / Bianca Hohn
12. Why So Huge? Biomechanical Reasons for the Acquisition of Large
Size in Sauropod and Theropod Dinosaurs / Holger Preuschoft, Bianca
Hohn, Stefan Stoinski, and Ulrich Witzel
13. Plateosaurus in 3D: How CAD Models and Kinetic-Dynamic Modeling
Bring an Extinct Animal to Life / Heinrich Mallison
14. Rearing Giants: Kinetic-Dynamic Modeling of Sauropod Bipedal
and Tripodal Poses / Heinrich Mallison
15. Neck Posture in Sauropods / Andreas Christian and Gordon
Dzemski
Part 4. Growth
16. The Life Cycle of Sauropod Dinosaurs / Eva-Maria Griebeler and
Jan Werner
17. Sauropod Bone Histology and Its Implications for Sauropod
Biology / P. Martin Sander, Nicole Klein, Koen Stein, and Oliver
Wings
Part 5. Epilogue
18. Skeletal Reconstruction of Brachiosaurus brancai in the Museum
für Naturkunde, Berlin: Summarizing 70 Years of Sauropod Research /
Kristian Remes, David M. Unwin, Nicole Klein, Wolf-Dieter Heinrich,
and Oliver Hampe
Appendix: Compilation of Published Body Mass Data for a Variety
of Basal Sauropodomorphs and Sauropods
Index
Exploring the mysteries of gigantism in the largest land creature that ever lived
Nicole Klein is a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Bonn who specializes in sauropodomorph dinosaur bone histology and marine reptiles from the Middle Triassic Muschelkalk deposits of Central Europe. She has done extensive fieldwork in many parts of the world, including Alaska and Nevada in the United States, and Ethiopia.
Kristian Remes has studied sauropodomorph anatomy, functional morphology, and phylogeny. He played a major role in the remounting of the famous Brachiosaurus skeleton in the newly renovated Dinosaur Hall at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. He is now a program director at the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Carole T. Gee, a senior research scientist at the University of Bonn, has worked on the Mesozoic flora for the last 25 years. She is the Research Unit's paleobotanist and answers questions on sauropod herbivory and the Mesozoic vegetation. Her research applies the knowledge of living plants and their ecological preferences to the interpretation of fossil plants and their habitats, and also includes studies on Eocene mangroves, Tertiary fruits and seeds, and plant taphonomy.
P. Martin Sander is a professor of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Bonn and head of the DFG Research Unit 533 "Biology of the Sauropod Dinosaurs: The Evolution of Gigantism." His research interests are the major events in the evolution of tetrapod vertebrates and how the fossil record helps us to understand them. His core expertise is the microstructure of dinosaur bone and the diversity and evolution of marine reptiles.
"Provide[s] much new information on the biology of Sauropod dinosaurs; information extrapolated from studies of extant animals and from unique, new methodologies for examining fossil material." Virginia Tidwell, Denver Museum of Nature and Science "[Biology of the Sauropod Dinosaurs] represents a valuable addition to the literature on these animals as it contains many novel ideas and quite a bit of new data. It will definitely instigate more work on sauropod biology and help to focus future work in new directions." - Geological Magazine
Ask a Question About this Product More... |