Re: broken fibulas

[Wayne Anderson <wander@hooked.net>]

Nick Longrich wrote:

>On Thu, 7 Nov 1996, Mickey Rowe wrote:
>
>> [Somebody (Mikiel?) know which of Sue's bones were broken?  Somebody
>>  (Ti... er Tom?) want to comment if said bone might have been as
>>  redundant for her as for Ray?  My bet is that a Tyrannosaur would
>>  have much more difficulty with the break of *any* leg bone than a
>>  human would have with a broken fibula.  -- MR ]
>
>       Fibula. Can't find a ref, though. 
>
>[Ok, we'll take your word for it for now.  Tom, comments? -- MR ]
>       
>       nick L.

Well, I'm not Ti -- er, Tom, but I'll comment: can we measure the
section modulus of the tibia, and calculate from that how well Sue (or
any T.rex) could move with a broken fibula? Maybe walk, but not run?
Maybe walk 2+ miles back to camp?  (I suspect Brian Curtice had
something to do with Sue's broken fibula!)
        And while I have come in on the "predator" side of the
"predator/scavenger" debate, I think a slightly crippled T.rex could
probably survive by scavenging. An animal Sue's size has a LOT of
power to impress the little scavengers, or even other big killers.

Wayne Anderson

(...but I still think healthy ones hunted!)