Re: Gorgo fingers

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 05:05 PM 1/16/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Subject: Gorgo fingers                                       5:56 PM    
>1/16/98
>
>  On a few mounts of Gorgosaurus Libratus, I've noticed the long ignored 
>digit III.   It was noted in Lambe's 1914 paper, but I rarely see it 
>illustrated.  Would it be visible?  The arm cast I have shows that it is 
>quite prominent.  Is there any evidence to suggest that this is not supposed 
>to be there?  If the greatly reduced finger is indeed on this animal and not 
>on Albertosaurus ( as far as I know of) than is that another good reason to 
>separate the two into different families.  What does it say about Tyrannosaur 
>lineage?

That's metacarpal III, not digit III.  That is, there was no finger on it.

Jurassic Park's mutant raptors notwithstanding, the metacarpals would all be
enclosed together within a fleshy palm, as they are in all amniote.  At most
there would be a slight enlargement at the spot, but no more than that.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661