The large quadrupedal herbivores known as sauropods roamed the planet from the Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous. With the longest necks and tails of all of the dinosaurs, some sauropods were 40 meters in length and weighed upwards of 100,000 kilograms. The popular image of these lumbering giants, placidly consuming ferns, has been greatly revised in recent years by new discoveries and new theories about behavior and physiology. This book presents 21 new studies of the sauropods. The volume is organized into four parts. Part I looks at some sauropods old and new, Part II at juvenile and adult specimens and ontogenetic variation within species. Part III concerns morphology and biomechanics, while Part IV takes up issues of biogeography. The contributors are Sebastian Apesteguia, Malcolm W. Bedell, Jr., David S. Berman, Matthew F. Bonnan, Kenneth Carpenter, Sankar Chatterjee, Rodolfo A. Coria, Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia, John R. Foster, Peter M. Galton, Jacques van Heerden, Takehito Ikejiri, Jean Le Loeuff, D. M. Mohabey, Ralph E. Molnar, John S. McIntosh, J. Michael Parrish, Bruce M. Rothschild, Leonardo Salgado, Steven W. Salisbury, Allen Shaw, Kenneth Stadtman, Kent A.Stevens, Virginia Tidwell, David L.
Trexler, D. Ray Wilhite, Adam M. Yates, and Zhong Zheng. Virginia Tidwell is a paleontologist in the Earth Science Lab at the Denver Museum of Natural History. Kenneth Carpenter is the dinosaur paleontologist for the Denver Museum of Natural History. His books include Eggs, Nests, and Baby Dinosaurs (IUP, 2000).