Heads held high
Updated on 27 May 2009
The largest dinosaurs held their heads up high and not out in front of them as depicted by top museums around the world, according to new research published today. Carl Dinnen talks to the author of the study, Dr Mike Taylor.
Generations of children have been brought up on the idea that that long necked dinosaurs like sauropods, lumbered along with their necks stretched out horizontally.
But now a new scientific paper claims that they held their heads upright in a graceful, swan-like posture - rather like the towering images seen in the film "Jurassic Park" which was previously dismissed as a fantastical representation of the species.
After examining the neck structures of modern long-necked animals such as giraffes and ostriches, they say it would have been much more natural for the sauropod, which was up to 30 metres (98ft) long and weighed as much as 10 elephants, to hold its neck and head upwards.
