Re: So-called sickle claws

[Jeffrey Martz <martz@holly.ColoState.EDU>]

> I have to agree with Larry on this one.  I work with birds of prey and
> their claw morphology is designed for quick puncturing and grasping so as
> to prevent prey from escaping and struggling.

      For use on what sized prey?  Don't all these predatory birds focus
an animals thier size or smaller?  Ripping open a little animal with
relatively thin skin may be relatively easy compared to trying to
disembowl a much larger animal and probably thicker skinned animal,
paricularly one that doesn't want to be disembowled.  Modern slashing
birds may suggest that dromeosaurs specialized on animals thier size or
considerably smaller, but finding modern analogues for big game hunting
dromeosaurs may be impossible. 

LN Jeff
O-    
"I'm trying to change 100 years of dogma.  Dinosaurs were portrayed early
on as vicious lizards..."