Re[2]: theropod tongues

[ldunn@milbank.com]

Author:  PC:NJPharris@aol.com at INTERNET
     
>> But then of course Tyrannosaurs  probably didn't have beaks either.  
>> Dinosaurs and birds are related (or dinosaurs are birds or birds are 
>> dinosaurs or dinobirds are . . .) but can we really say that a two 
>> ounce dinobird should dictate the reconstruction of a five ton 
>> theropod?
     
>However, the fact that many ornithodirans, from pterosaurs to 
>ornithischians to modern birds have/had horny beaks may indicate that the 
>presence of a horny covering over part of the jaws (the premaxilla?) might 
>have been a primitive character for the Ornithodira 
>(dinosaurs+pterosaurs+"lagosuchians").  This is purely speculation, of 
>course, but some sort of beak on _Tyrannosaurus_ is not *completely* 
>unreasonable.

Agreed that a horny beak isn't completely ruled out (although it would be 
rather odd with those large teeth) but my point was that Tyrannosaurus was 
sufficiently different from most birds (all birds, dare I say) that the 
"well, birds have tongue-ettes (tongue-inos, tongue-lings)" argument doesn't 
exactly compell me.  Most living large-toothed predators that spring to mind 
have long tongues (ok, so they're mammals -- but doesn't the Komodo monitor 
have a typical healthy lizard tongue?)
     
> BTW, _Tyrannosaurus_ was a five-ton *dinobird*.

Was it ever.  Boy, I'm tellin' ya . . .
     
     Larry
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