Re: Suchomimus vs Baryonyx: Dare to Compare

["David Krentz" <david_krentz@fa.disney.com>]

Reply to:RE>>Suchomimus vs Baryonyx: Dare to Compare         8:04 AM    
11/20/98

   Dann Pigdon wrote
>Could spinosaurs in
general have leant more towards the scavenging side of things? A
long narrow skull and mobile neck would be just right for getting
deep into carcasses.<
   
  Perhaps those huge pecs and arms were well suited for tearing apart a 
carcass so it's delicate head could dig around inside it.  I have this image 
of a fishing Suchomimus lifting it's head from a stream disatisfied with it's 
catch.  Suddenly a nice bloated carcass floats by.  After hualing it to the 
shore, it wrenches it's ribcage open and happily sticks it's snout into  the 
guts......I'm sorry, I turned into Dave Alden for a second.

  David Krentz
--------------------------------------
Date: 11/20/98 12:08 AM
To: David Krentz
From: dannj@alphalink.com.au
Jeff Hecht wrote:
> 
> This seems to be one weird critter, with no direct analogies today. The
> body is somewhat bear-like, the skull crocidilian, and the neck longer than
> either.  Was the narrow skull an adaptation to give greater head mobility
> than possible with the massive skulls of other giant theropods?
> -- Jeff Hecht

I long ago mentioned, during that old chestnut of a thread
"Tyrannosaurus: hunter or scavenger?" that we should be looking
for species with long, narrow skulls for probing into a carcass to
identify possibly scavenging species. At the time Velociraptor
mongoliensis and Baryonyx walkeri came to mind. Could spinosaurs in
general have leant more towards the scavenging side of things? A
long narrow skull and mobile neck would be just right for getting
deep into carcasses. Most crocodylian species also seem to do quite
a bit of scavenging, so could this perhaps explain the convergence
of skull/tooth form?

-- 
____________________________________________________
        Dann Pigdon
        GIS Archaeologist
        Melbourne, Australia

        Australian Dinosaurs:
        http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/4459/
        http://www.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
____________________________________________________