Re: Cursorial adaptations (was T.rex and elephants)

[augwhite@neosoft.com (Toby White)]

You wrote:
>velocities. I like your idea of a brief charge. I've speculated and have
>developed some restorations of Triceratops going bipedal for a step or two at
>the culmination of a charge. I think most of their offensive activity was
>directed at each other, however.

Dunno about a bipedal charge, but at least a bipedal lunge.  If the
principal defensive tactics were hers-based, it wouldn't do to have a
defender too far out of line.  But it still seems reasonable to have the
beast rock back and up on his hind-legs, thus reducing his moment of
inertia, then pivot, following the dodging tyrannosaur. At the auspicious
moment, he lunges, perhaps aiming low to snap a tendon with those remarkably
powerful jaws.

Plausible, anyway.  I have a little trouble believing a ceratopsan could
develop the speed, but it would't need too much.  Also, in a semi-erect
position, he'd get a lot of mechanical advantage on the pivot, just by
moving his head.  Is the ceratopsian neck strong enough to handle this kind
of stress?

  --Toby White