University of Portsmouth - Walking tall

Widely accepted portrayals of sauropods, one of the most recognisable prehistoric creatures, are almost certainly wrong, research suggests. Recent depictions, such as those in the BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs, show them with their long necks held horizontal and their heads near the ground. But scientists now say the low-necked sauropod pose is a mistake: new evidence indicates that they held their necks aloft like giraffes, making them up to 15m tall. Researchers Mike Taylor and Darren Naish, of the University of Portsmouth, and Matt Wedel, of Western University of Health Sciences in California, argue that while sauropods could hold their necks low, it was not their habitual posture.