Re: gender

[Darryl <dinoguy@interlog.com>]

At 10:00 AM 08/10/97 -0700, you wrote:
>I believe I saw on the post, on a description of "SUE" that there
>was a T Rex tooth stuck in one of the ribs, if this so can we
>hypothesize that SUE was a male?
>
How did you arrive at this conclusion (this is not an attack, simply a
question)?  The tooth in the rib evidence was put into some doubt by Darren
Tanke, who actually saw the specimen.  He doesn't think it was a tooth at
all, just an abnormality in preservation (if I remember correctly.  It was
a post to this list a while ago, like years, so you can look it up in the
archives).

Sue is presumed to be female, due to an adaptation in her pelvis, the lack
of a first chevron, a short second chevron, and the fact that she is larger
and more robust than other T. rex specimens.  Being larger is generally a
female trait in many animals.  Ken Carpenter wrote a paper about it in
1990, describing the possible sexual dimorphism.  He did not have Sue to
work with (she was not found yet) but he did have the skeletons of the
Carnegie Museum (f), the American Museum (m), and the Los Angeles County
Museum (m).  The only problem I have with this idea is that there seem to
be many males found, but only two or three females.


Darryl  <dinoguy@interlog.com
Visit my webpage at:
http://www.interlog.com/~dinoguy
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"Genetics explains why you look like your father, and if
you don't, why you should."   (anonymous)
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