Re: And the T. Rex bell goes "dung"! and Art Bell does too

[SL Nyveen <lawrence@dsuper.net>]

At 23:54 -0400 18/6/98, Ralph Miller III wrote:

Here's a thought that only 4 a.m. can inspire:

1) Tyrannosaurs excreted crushed bones
2) Up to the the discovery of the recent coprolite, pretty much every
researcher felt that tyrannosaurs used their mouths primarily to carve out
and swallow chunks of soft tissue.
3) Some surprise has been expressed concerning a tyrannosaur using its
teeth to finely process bone.

Here's the idea:

Tyrannosaurs did carve out huge chunks of meat, and bone.  It didn't crush
the bone with its teeth.  Why?  Because it had gastroliths to do that.

Has anyone ever looked for gastroliths associated with large theropods?
Heck, it might even be a primitive trait shared with theropod/sauropod
ancestors.

Has anyone seen the paper yet?  Can the bones' fracture morphology reveal
what sort of forces crushed them - i.e. pounding with rounded surfaces or
high pressure tooth edge piercing?

I doubt the bones would have many revealing marks left after passage
through the GI tract, but Tom, if you figger this out, Andrew Hill will be
so proud.  :)


Laurie Nyveen                                  lawrence@dsuper.net
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