Re: Anything new on Deinocheirus

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

At 08:02 AM 1/24/98 -0800, you wrote:

>Last I heard, a couple of years ago, _Deinocheirus_ was a complete
>mystery.

As Ostrom first pointed out around 1972, there is absolutely nothing in the
anatomy of Deinocheirus to exlude it from Ornithomimosauria.  The supposed
"raptorial" claws are not raptorial at all: they are neither long and
tapered with an oval cross-section (as in carnosaurs and raptorial birds,
for instance), nor are they flat blades with high angles of curvature (as in
dromaeosaurids).

Its metacarpal proportions, claw form, and other structures strongly suggest
it is just one bigass (tm World Wide Pants) ornithomimosaur.

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