Re: Theropod stance balance

[don ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com>]

Just speculating: I think that Sue was very close to
the theoretical maximum size for the bipedal
lifestyle. Reallocation of mass (great big legs,
little teeny arms) appears to have reached the point
of diminishing returns. The conflicting need for an
ever-larger head for feeding on ever-larger prey just
made her bipedal dilemma worse.

If/when a new size champion is found, perhaps a
latinized version of "Help, I've fallen and I can't
get up" would be appropriate as a name. 

So how the hell did Sue get up? A sort of three point
pushup (nose, hindleg, hindleg), the little teeny arms
useful only for pre-positioning? Surely a fall in an
adult individual was not necessarily a fatal event?

My apologies for not citing the many whose insights
and discoveries have improved the realism of my
paleo-fantasies. Hutchinson and Schnider come to mind.

Don

--- Manuel Parrado <meparrado@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Greetings all.
> I have grown curious lately of how theropods like
> tyrannosauroids managed to stay on their feet
> without
> toppling forward.
> By looking at some skeletal reconstructions and
> other
> illustrations, it looks like tyrannosuarus, for
> instance, is very front heavy considering the vert
> large head and how far it is from the hips.  In some
> other big theropods like allosuarus, the tail looks
> very long in comparison and the head smaller so it
> looks better balanced to hold the axial skeleton in
> a
> horizontal position.
> Can anybody comment and/or point to some articles
> covering body balance in tyrannosaurs?
> 
> Manuel Parrado
> 
> 
>               
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