Re: Mononykus, Titanis, and Ground Sloths

["David J. Froehlich" <eohippus@uts.cc.utexas.edu>]

At 04:08 AM 5/14/97 -0500, you wrote:
>From: Adam Black <paleoart@digital.net>
>Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 23:15:51 -0500
>To: dinosaur@usc.edu
>Subject: Re: Mononykus, Titanis, and Ground Sloths

I was amused to see the ground sloth carnivory article.

There actually is a good way to test it.

Stable carbon isotopes fractionate differently in carnivores and herbivores
(essentially carnivores have a double fractionation).  If anybody knows of
a study on ground sloth carbon isotopes it should fairly conclusively
disprove their carnivory

David
David J. Froehlich                              Phone: 512-471-6088   
Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory                Fax: 512-471-5973
J.J. Pickle Research Campus
The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712