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Re: A true appearance of a large theropod



On Tue, Aug 4th, 2015 at 1:58 AM, Poekilopleuron <dinosaurtom2015@seznam.cz> 
wrote:

> Good day, I was wondering what would a large 12+ meters long theropod actually
>  look and behave like? Would it resemble a large flightless bird of prey or 
> would it be more like an agile long-legged crocodile? Thank you in advance, 

Generalising about non-avian dinosaurs in terms of them being 'bird-like' or 
'croc-like' is like trying 
to classify all mammals as either 'bat-like' or 'whale-like'. Birds and crocs 
are extremely 
specialised archosaurs that are unlikely to be useful as anatomical or 
behavioural examples for 
extinct archosaurs in general. Even the non-avian theropod 'cousins' of birds 
are likely to have 
differed significantly from modern avians in aspects of their appearance and 
behaviour.

My answer to your question would therefore be either 'possibly a bit of both' 
or 'probably neither'.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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