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RE: toofs



> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] 
> On Behalf Of Hammer
>
> So, Daspletosaurus actually had larger teeth than T. Rex?
> Was this just an isolated specimen or does the average size 
> of the largest teeth actually run bigger than Rex's?

I don't know what this statement was in refernce to.

However, no: the largest T. rex teeth are absolutely larger than the largest
Daspletosaurus teeth.

> What about the Carcharodontosauridae teeth size - what is the 
> current possible reasoning that these somewhat larger 
> carnivores have smaller and sharklike teeth compared to the 
> tyrannosaurs?

Because carcharodontosaurids simply retained the ancestral condition rather
than evolving a new state. Different strokes (or bites) for different folks.

>  Could they have punched through bone or were 
> they more restricted to flesh?
> 
Most likely the latter, as argued in (among others) my chapter in the T. rex
symposium volume.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
Fax: 301-405-0796

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
                        Building 237, Room 1117
                        University of Maryland
                        College Park, MD 20742 USA