Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week

Here is your occasional reminder of how very misleading feathers can be in understanding the true shape of an animal. An owl:

And the same owl showing a bit of leg:

And here are the two photos side by side:

We’ve often told you here on SV-POW! that necks lie. But legs lie, as well. Not to mention arms. Which is why so most of our life restorations of dinosaurs (theropods at least) probably look nothing like these animals looked in life.

Credit: I got the owl images from this Japanese page, but I have no idea where they originated. There are copies all over the Web, and figuring out which are the originals — if they’re even still up — would be a major research project. At any rate, you ought to be told that they are not my photos.