Re: Dromaeosaur "sickle" claws

[Dennis C Hwang <dchwang@itsa.ucsf.edu>]

On Fri, 29 Aug 1997 jamolnar@juno.com wrote:

> On Wed, 27 Aug 1997 11:02:12 -0700 (PDT) Dennis C Hwang
> <dchwang@itsa.ucsf.edu> writes:

<snip> or even <slash>

> >Dromaeosaur claws (and, I would suspect, the vast majority of animal
> >claws) would cause lacerations.  I can't think of anything in nature 
> >that
> >would produce something I could call an incision.
> 
> Shark teeth, especially the serrated teeth of _Charcharodon megalodon_,
> would come pretty close.

Good point (pun intended, as always).  I remember reading an anecdote in
Richard Ellis's _The Book of Sharks_ back in 1978, in which he described
running his finger along the serrations of a _Carcharodon carcharias_
tooth:  "I didn't know I had cut myself until I saw the blood."

Of course, the *cumulative* effect of a mouthful of _Carcharodon_ teeth,
as I recall, is generally an avulsion.

--Dennis
dchwang@itsa.ucsf.edu
xenopathologist at large!
Deathwalker for President:  for some *real* health care reform.