Re: horns for defense

[Scott <HORTON@BCRSSU.AGR.CA>]

>He was firmly of the opinion that the horns
>were more or less strictly for combat amongst each other (is
>intraspecific the right term here?), pointing out that one's head was
>probably the worst place one would want a defensive weapon - if a
>Triceratops would be lucky enough to gore a Tyrannosaurus, it would then
>face the problem of several tons of opponent causing stress on its neck,
>either thrashing or collapsing.

I would think that the head is the perfect place for a defensive weapon. It
would make a charge lethal. And the large neck frill would defend the area that
most carnivores attack: the neck. A stegosaur, on the other hand, would have a
hard time protecting its head by using a tail of spikes (I'm not even sure it
could turn its head enough to see what was behind it!). This is probably why
stegosaurs became extinct  :)
Another piece of evidence: T.rex had stereo vision, which is very rare among
theropods. I can't imagine what a scavenger would need stereo vision for!

Scott Horton
Geophysicist/Computer Programmer