Page 40 - Dinosaur (DK Eyewitness Books)

Cervical vertebrae (neck bones) Dorsal vertebrae (backbones)

The backbone story

TȩȦ ȣȰȥȺ Ȱȧ Ȣ ȭȢȳȨȦ ȱȭȢȯȵ ȦȢȵȪȯȨ ȥȪȯȰȴȢȶȳ
such as a sauropod had to bear an enormous load
measuring several tons. Much of that weight was
carried by the backbone between shoulders and
hips. This section of backbone served a bit like
the central beam of a house, but instead of
helping to hold up a roof, it supported the head,
neck, tail, ribs, and the heavy internal organs that
the ribs protected. These included the heart, lungs,
liver, and a great gut full of food. The sauropod
backbone was made up of interlocking vertebrae,
many of which were hollowed out for lightness. Scapula
(shoulder
blade) Rib

Bony Humerus
Dorsal vertebrae basket
Head end (backbones) (upper
arm bone)
Tail end
SPINY BACKBONE
Narrow spines
Radius jutting from the top of
(forearm Diplodocus’s vertebrae
bone) provided anchor points
for its powerful back
muscles. Many of the
spines were forked to hold
a cablelike ligament that
Euoplocephalus helped to support the
skeleton animal’s neck and tail.
Diplodocus’s backbone took
the combined weight of the
BONY BASKET Shelflike ilium head, neck, body, and tail and
In the club-tailed, armored dinosaur Euoplocephalus (hip bone) Ulna passed it down through the
(“well armored head”), the backbones above the (forearm heavy, pillarlike limbs to the
hips were fused (joined) to one another as in other bone) ground. This reconstructed
dinosaurs. But these bones of Euoplocephalus were Diplodocus skeleton is on
also fused to ribs that grew out from the spine into display in Frankfurt, Germany.
the shelflike ilium on each side of the backbone. In Since the fossil skeleton was
this way, the backbone, ribs, and hip bones formed a incomplete, scientists were
wide, strong, bony basket. This braced the muscles that Metacarpal forced to use the forelimbs
powered the dinosaur’s hind limbs and helped to swing (hand bone) of Camarasaurus, an
the tail club to aid Euoplocephalus fend off theropods. unrelated sauropod.