Hello friends - I am here to subvert "mary's little life" for the day to tell you that "A Monkey's Eye View" has moved. If you were an "AMEV" reader, you can now find it at:
It's all the same craziness, just with a new title. Like, remember a few years ago when paleontologists (dinosaur scientists) had several paleontological fist-fights over the name of the "brontosaurus"? The older scientists insisted on "brontosaurus" and the new scientists insisted on "brachiosaurus". It was a big, big deal in the paleontology world. There was name-calling and black-balling and out-of-a-plane-falling (well, maybe not the last one), and eventually everyone decided that nobody really cared. But now if you say, "brontosaurus" around a paleontologist (and I know that all of you spend a lot of time around paleontologists) he'll correct you. "Actually," he'll say smuggly, "we prefer the term 'brachiosaurus'." But the point is that "A Monkey's Eye View" is like "brontosaurus" and "Views from the Canopy" is like "brachiosaurus".
The Fine Print: Brachiosaurus was a sauropod, one of a group of four-legged, plant-eating dinosaurs with long necks and tails, and tiny brains. Unlike other families of sauropods, it had a giraffe-like build, with long forelimbs and a very long neck, which, as a recent study has proven, it did not raise above its head. Instead of grazing on the treetops, as was previously believed, it ate ferns and other low-growing plants. Also, it was previously believed that it had two brains- one in its head and one near its hip. It is now known that the brain in its hip is, in fact, an enlarged spinal cord area bigger than its actual brain. It had teeth like chisels (spatulate), and nostrils on the top of its head, which may indicate it had a good sense of smell. It had a number of holes in its skull to reduce weight. The first toe on its front foot, and the first three on its hind feet had claws. They may have traveled in herds. Brachiosaurus is estimated to weigh from 30 to 80 tonnes (35 to 90 tons), to reach 13 meters (42 feet) in height, and 25 meters (82 feet) in length. Higher estimates are usually based on the Ultrasauros, which was originally considered to be an extremely large Brachiosaurus. However, Ultrasauros is now believed to be a chimera, composed of neck bones from a Supersaurus, and a shoulder bone (scapulacoracoid) from a Brachiosaurus smaller than the largest Giraffatitan specimens.
