Re: re:dino mimicry (long)

[Flyinggoat@aol.com]

    All right, so no one liked the walnut idea.....

    Is it possible that the intention of the tail was not to be used as a
decoy (bite me on this end) but rather as a startlement (gosh! which end do I
bite now?).  This supposition would be dependant on hunters that were
snatch-and-grab hunters, like modern snakes and crocodiles, and not on the
more sophisticated hunters like modern cats and wolves.  Wouldn't the
startlement use allow for more limited movement?  It's not hitting anything,
really.
    It would be more to the anklysaur's advantage to mimic it's other end
than any iguanodon, as mentioned earlier in this thread.
    If the anklyosaur was a herd animal, perhaps the grouping of many
individuals with a 'false head' on the backend of each one might lead to
frustration on the part of predators attempting to approach from an
unobserved side.  This might lead to a circling predator, attempting to sneak
up on the group and looking for a direction to attack that wasn't 'watched'.
 Circling predators are more likely to make some kind of error in their
approach, whether a snapped branch, or crossing upwind, or whatever.
 Therefore, the butt-head (sorry) would be advantagous to a group to provide
a sort of 'false scout'.  The theory was used effectivly by tiger-beaters in
India, which wore masks on the back of their heads while hunting tigers so
the tiger wouldn't sneak up on them.  This supposition would be dependant on
hunters that relied heavily on sight and set-up to key themselves to their
prey, like modern cats and wolves, and not on the snatch-and-grab killer.
    Since anklysaurids have such low to the ground heads, I would think that
the 'butt-head' might be an affective decoy for an animal that wouldn't be on
the alert most of the time.  Unless anklys had really good senses of hearing
or smell, their vision apparatus isn't set up for panoramic viewing; their
heads are carried low, and many have brow knobs or horns that would obscure
vision upwards.  They don't seem to be designed to see anything with the
visual accuity, say, of a cow.
    This all makes sense if you imagine a low-moving individual or herd of
anklyosaurs which might not be able to see a 20-30 ft tall therapod until it
was REALLY close.  Close enough for the therapod to spot the anklys before
the anklys spot the therapod.  They can't rely on speed to protect them.  The
club is not much protection as a weapon, since it can't be swung around much.
   (Though suddenly I have this vision of anklys wedging the tail in the
mouth of an attacking therapod in the middle of it's lunge, and snapping off
a couple of teeth.  The therapod gets a mouthful of knob and decides the rest
of the ankly is probably icky and knobby, too, and goes away)
    What do they do?  They rely on confusion, and then run away.
    I can imagine big eye spots on the knob.  That would be cool.
    If the anklys are using the tail as a therapod-decoy, it would preclude
using the tail as a sexual display, because the one thing you wouldn't want
to do to a species that has bad vision, would be to confuse which end was the
business end of the girl dinosaur.

Betty Cunningham(Flyinggoat@aol.com)
illustrator, animator, and likes to collect dead things