RE: Big Dinosaur Print

["King, Norm R" <NKing@usi.edu>]

-----Original Message-----
From: itokawa@fit.ac.jp [mailto:itokawa@fit.ac.jp]
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 12:09 AM
To: Dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Re: Big Dinosaur Print

>T. Mike Keesey wrote, concerning traces of dragged tails:
>
>> Neither Rob nor I are talking of a dinosaur so sick or injured
>>as to be unable to move.  After all, that is a trackway along
>>which the tail drag is seen.  Just, perhaps, an injured theropod
>>was involved.


>It seems to me much more natural for paleontologists to accept that
>dinosaurs exhibited different forms of walking.  If I remember correct-
>ly, horses show about five or six different gaits (e.g., walking,
>trotting, pacing, galloping, etc.) and even us humans, even though
>we walk 90% of the time, can also run, hop, skip, and (most important-
>ly) tip-toe on various occasions.


But how many gaits does one species of bird show?  And what do they do when
injured?  Do birds ever drag their tails when injured?  I seem to remember
seeing injured birds just kind of waddling along rather erratically.