Re: So-called Sickle Claws

["Peter Von Sholly" <vonrex@gte.net>]

Well, I could quibble and disagree ad nauseum, but to what end?  However I
would like to say, for the record, that despite my remarks about this TOE,
I have a lot of respect for G. Paul.  I think his stuff is great and a
great boon to the paelo world.  

----------
> From: NJPharris@aol.com
> To: vonrex@gte.net; dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Re: So-called Sickle Claws
> Date: Friday, August 29, 1997 11:33 AM
> 
> In a message dated 97-08-29 04:52:07 EDT, vonrex@gte.net writes:
> 
> > There is no room for
> >  "give" if the claw took any impact.  
> 
> There is "give" between phalanx II-2 and the ungual.
> 
> 
> >  Also, the tip of the big claw appears to be blunt.  No doubt you will
> >  conclude that it was simply preserved that way; broken.  But maybe it
> >  wasn't preserved because it had been dulled or broken off in life
through
> >  usage.  
> 
> Abraded all the way down to the bony core??  Sounds unlikely.  Besides
which,
> from the drawings (_Dinosauria_, p. 274-5) it appears that *all* the
claws,
> hand and foot, have their tips broken off.  Are you prepared to contend
that
> _D. antirrhopus_ was walking on all fours?
> 
> >  If a ligament held the claw up that far all the time, it would be a
> >  ligament mightily stretched anytime the animal wanted to flex that toe
> >  much.  
> 
> No more so than when a sauropod bent its head down to drink or when a
> perching bird stands on the ground.
> 
> NP