Re: Dr. Bakker and Dinosaur intellegence (was: Fwd: Bakkermania!)

["Larry Dunn" <larrydunn@hotmail.com>]

From: "Dave L. Hardenbrook" <DaveH47@delphi.com>

>Didn't Rauisuchians have a semi-sprawling gait, so that the fully 
upright
>Coelophysids would have had a distinct advantage?

Crocodylians are capable of great bursts of speed, sprawling though they 
are.  Many of their thecodont relatives are considered to have been 
capable of bipedal running, probably giving them even greater bursts of 
speed.

And all this assumes that thecodonts were semi-sprawling; the last time 
I checked, they were considered to carry themselves with an upright 
gait.  Perhaps we can get a list clarification of the latest on this.

>I frankly think that the old "Golden Rule" about brain size = 
intellegence 
>is as archaic as the pelycosaurs,

All of the current dinosaur books refer to EQ as a *very* rough but 
still valuable tool in estimating dinosaur intelligence, so if it's good 
enough for Farlow, Bakker himself, et al, it's still worthy of 
consideration.

> and we're going to be able to get any 
>real insight on dinosaur intellegence from two things: Fossil evidence 
of 
>their behavior patterns (which seem to me above and beyond any mere
>reptilian),

How so?

>and from the intellegence of their living relatives...

Many of the extant animals in their phylogenetic bracket (birds, 
crocodylians) are certainly social to a greater or lesser extent but do 
not exhibit the sophisticated cooperative behavior alleged by the 
dancing dinosaur advocates.

Larry

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