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Machairodontids - Google Zoologically Aware? Re: snarling theropods



On Thu, 7 Aug 2003, Mark Hallett wrote:
> Ever woke up to find you'd fallen asleep with your
> mouth open? These tissues can dry out quickly,
> depending on the amount of humidity. The important
> thing isn't whether the teeth were totally covered or
> not (obviously this would have been impossible in
> machairodontids, most pterosaurs and other
> archosaurs), but that the oral flaps would have
> covered the the soft epithelial or mucosal tissue,
> either preventing or at least reducing dessication
> from water transpiration through these areas, as well
> as helping to keep out insect parasites.  Otherwise
> there's little reason to have structures like this. 

I plugged machairodontids into google and it asked if I meant
"machairodontinae".

I tried carcharodontids but didn't get the same effect.