Re: SCRAPPING TYRANNOSAURS..

[ornstn@inforamp.net (Ronald Orenstein)]

>Regarding standing on leg and fighting, what do modern analogs - say
>an ostrich - do? Not the same bulk and dimensions as a rex, but
>similarly arm challenged.
>
>+----------+    Rich Travsky   RTRAVSKY @ UWYO . EDU

Well, cassowaries, like fighting cocks (I actually HAVE seen a cockfight,
but a mock one, many years ago in Mexico, in which the birds' spurs were
outfitted with tiny boxing gloves), do not stand on one leg and kick - they
leap into the air and slash out (in the case of cassowaries which use  a
forward-pointing claw) or strike outwards and downwards (for fighting cocks)
with both feet simultaneously.  A cassowary will also, according to the
Handbook of the Birds of the World vol. 1, launch a one-legged (I presume)
kick as it races past its opponent.  The Handbook notes that an Ostrich kick
can kill a lion, or a human, but does not say how it is done.

I have often wondered if  a leaping, two-legged kick might not also have
been the standard attack method of Velociraptor and its kin (especially as
it has a big advantage over cassowaries in that it can grab the kickee
first), rather than the balancing-on-one-leg kick usually described - after
all, why not use two weapons at once if you have them?
--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home)
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