[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]
RE: New Deinocheirus specimens found, indicating basal ornithomimosaur
Would the claws (and arm muscles) be suitable to uprooting and breaking open
cycad trunks or similar plants? IIRC the tricipital attachment scar should be
large and quite rugose in such a case. The claws at least of advanced
therizinosaurs don't seem well suited for such foraging activity (too long and
compressed, better for shearing off foliage), and as regards non-dinosaurian
competitors in such a niche there were few if any at that time.
Regards,
Eike
--------------------------------------------
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. <tholtz@umd.edu> schrieb am Mi, 6.11.2013:
Betreff: RE: New Deinocheirus specimens found, indicating basal ornithomimosaur
An: qi_leong@hotmail.com, "'Tim Williams'" <tijawi@gmail.com>, "'Dinosaur
Mailing List'" <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Datum: Mittwoch, 6. November, 2013 15:38 Uhr
The manual claws of Deinocherius are
most definitely NOT raptorial! However, I understand when
just viewing them from a distance
they might appear so. Handling the actual specimens (or
casts), you find they are much thicker, much less pointed,
and so forth than
people commonly think: more like the claws of basal
therizinosauroids.
Torvosaurus, Suchomimus, megaraptorans, etc., are much
better models for what a giant raptorial claw actually looks
like: far more
tapered, far more pointed, more elongate compared to the
articular facet, etc.
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, Science & Global Change Program,
College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843
Mailing Address: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Department of Geology
Building 237, Room 1117
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742 USA