UGH trying to find this one specific overview of sauropod anatomy, and cannot Find It.
Why do I want to find this paper? Ok here's why:
With fossilized things, we work from the hard parts (bones, shells, etc) and usually have to extrapolate from our knowledge of living organisms for the soft parts (fat, muscle, etc). In the case of sauropods, they have very very long necks; we can assume this would cause problems similar to in giraffes. It takes a lot of force to pump blood up so high to reach the head, and must've only been more so for a bigger animal with a longer neck. & paleontologists propose that sauropods could've "solved" the problem similarly, by having a really beefy heart.
but what sticks this paper in my mind is the discussion of alternatives to the "stronger heart" idea. Notably, the hypothesis that sauropods had Seven Additional Hearts in their neck. described in the review as something like 'a structure not found in any extant vertebrates'. i need the Eight Hearts Dinosaur paper. i need to once again witness firsthand the review having the scientific equivalent of " :| "











