RE: Nothronychus graffami

[Jaime Headden <qi_leong@hotmail.com>]

  Possibly one of the most graviportal theropods I have ever seen. Apart from 
the massive development of the sacrum, ilium, and pes, this animal possesses 
extreme development of the anterior dorsal neural spines, a slender and rotated 
scapular shaft that almost certainly indicates a broad anterior throacic 
cavity, and a long craniocaudal development of the pubic/ischium profile, such 
that it was longer cranio-caudally than in other therizinosaurs (segnosaurs! 
someone should resurrect that name when it becomes meaningful taxonomically). 
Development of a large semi-cubic tuberosity -- proximal to the distal iliac 
terminus and confluent with the antitrochanter -- on the ilium and the 
progressive lengthening of the metatarsals, where even the first metatarsal 
contacts the tarsus, and with the fourth metatarsal being the longest in the 
pes, imply derived graviportalism within theropods. Pedal unguals are dewcurved 
relatively to other therizinosaurs, and show that they were more likely used in 
locomotion than anything else.

  What a strange beastie. (But that's par for the course with segnosaurs, 
really.)

Cheers,

Jaime A. Headden

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