Diplodocus rearing (mating, defense, rivalry)

[andrewsaurus rex]

I was playing around with my Mattel Diplodocus today.  And discovered it can be made to rear up, pretty high too, thanks to the (very stiff) ball joint at the base of the tail where it connects to the torso.

My first thought was to get a second Diplo and pose them mating.  But i quickly realized that the male even standing straight up can't drape over the back of the female if she is standing...he just can't get up high enough for his belly to drape over her back.

So i thought ok, maybe she would lie down on her belly.  That was doable for the male to drape over her back but the cloaca end up being so far apart that the Diplo would have to have a penis of over 10 feet and then somehow be able to guide it downwards and forward accurately.  Not impossible i know but wow, is it likely?

So then i tried her lying down on her side.  That worked quite well and the penis could be a far more reasonable length and navigating much easier.  The only drawback of this pos'n for mating i can see is whether the female would have trouble breathing on her side with some of the weight of the male on her lower torso.  But this is the way i would go with if i were to pose them.

The Mattel Diplo also rears high enough to pose two fighting or one fending off a predator, as seen in so much artwork.  But i am debating how likely these two poses are.  Especially fending off a predator.  Rearing takes the tail out of the equation because it's needed for balance so can't be used for striking, mobility and the ability to pivot are pretty much gone and other than being pretty intimidating (and looking really cool) i don't see how it aids in defense as the rear legs can no longer kick and the front legs are too high off the ground to strike effective blows.  So i'm still mulling.

[fgh46]

I don't even know!
In retro-paleo-reconstructions, diplodocus and other sauropods mate in the water, and from modern ones I can only remember Walking with Dinosaurs!
In this regard, I'm more concerned about ankylosaurs - they have almost everything in armor except the belly!

[andrewsaurus rex]

the bigger problem with ankylosaurs is their body shape.   Other armoured dinosaurs like stegosaurs, ceratopsians, could lie on their side (female) while the male straddles them on top.   This is imo the most likely way they mated. 

But ankylosaurs with their rounded, wide body cross section couldn't really lie on their side as they would tend to topple onto their back....unless that's how they mated and then afterwards the male helped roll her back onto her feet again?   However, my understanding is that the base of ankylosaur tails was very flexible, so maybe the female could swing her tail out of the way sufficiently for the male to have access while both were standing.   Dunno.