Re: Ceratopsian frills

[Crpntr@ix.netcom.com (Kenneth Carpenter)]

Merritt Clifton wrote: 

>
>A while back I speculated that Ceratopsian frills,  especially the 
bigger
>ones,  might have acted as huge ear-trumpets,  helping them to ear the
>approach of predators.  Tom Holtz shot that one down by arguing that 
the
>frills don't appear to funnel
>sound toward the ears.  I've been mulling that over ever since
>and am not really convinced:  it would seem to me that the accoustical
>properties of the frills would depend on the inner parts,  not just the
>externals,  and that the circulatory plumbing some others have 
mentioned from
>time to time could have had a significant amplifying effect.  There's 
more to
>this than just funneling sound to consider;  there's also resonance.  I 
think
>this idea can't be dismissed out-of-hand until and unless there's some 
way to
>test it,  say by beaming sound at a replica and seeing what happens.
> --Merritt Clifton,  editor,  ANIMAL PEOPLE.


I agree with Tom about this.  The shape and angle of the frills would 
deflect sound away from the ears, not towards them.  Note, especially 
the upward curve of the Triceratops frill.  In many ways, the angles 
of the frills would function like the angles on a stealth aircraft, they 
would deflect sound, but not towards the ears.


Kenneth Carpenter