Re: T rex carinae

["Michael" <tons@ccs.netside.com>]

> From:          "Norton, Patrick" <Patrick.Norton@state.me.us>

<Snip>
 It seems that serrations would be more useful on a   
> weapon shaped like a knife than one shaped like a large railroad spike.  
> 
It seems that the massive head, length of imbedded "root/tooth", and 
large conical shape of the teeth were used to penetrate bone as well 
as soft tissue.  We also have wounds to substantiate this somewhat.  
The serrations would have been useful to slice flesh, obviously.  The 
increase in surface area of the serrations would have made the 
teeth/serrations more effective.  Even the ends of the serrations 
ended with a semi-circular notch instead of a "v" or linear groove.  
This decreased the likelihood of fracture at those points.

I'm assuming double duty or merely more effecient as the cause.  I 
wonder what came first, larger teeth/size and larger prey or vice 
versa.  Did hunting and killing/slashing/biting techniques evolve 
differently in tyrannosaurs versus S American theropods are were the 
conical shape and the serrations just more efficient giving them more 
options to kill/scavenge?

Michael