Re: [Re: [Suchomimus tenerensis]]

[archosaur@usa.net]

christianwarior7@hotmail.com wrote:

> The same could be said by a paleontologist millions of years from now 
> who might happen to discover a corcodile or even an alligator skeleton. 
> They would also conclude that it must have had a pescivourus diet, and 
> its jaws would break under the pressure of anything else.
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Assuming that millions of years from now crocodylians are no longer around, or
that paleontologists are around.

With crocodiles the same rule applies. Niles, Salties, Muggers and most of the
other crocodylians today have jaws on par with _Baryonyx walkeri_. Thinner
than most animals but still wide enough and strong enough (stronger actually)
to take down large animals like water buffalo.

The piscivorous crocodylians like gharials, the false gharial and the African
slender snouted croc all have jaws suitable for fishing and small animal
catching. If they were to attempt to tackle a large animal their jaws would
snap under the stress.

_Suchomimus tenerensis_ had jaws like the latter, so the same rules seem to
apply. I guess it's just a parsimony thing. 

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> >If it tried it's jaws would snap under the stress. And if it used other 

> body

> >parts to kill it's prey, then why evolve the long jaws in the first 

> place.

> 

> Why not? If they had no use then they can evolve any which way that they 
> want. Evolution occurs (and this will seem very trivial to all you 
> people who already know this obviously)when a mutation or something 
> similar happens to take place, and that creature goes on to grow up and 
> survives to breed and pass on that trait to his young when he (I 
> apologize to all the women out there for putting all this into the male 
> form) mates, and eventually that species goes on to replace the previous 
> species, for whatever reason. So those jaws could easily have evolved in 
> whatever fashion, regardless if they were or were not used.
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Ahh yes, but don't forget Natural Selection usually does a good job of weeding
out all the useless bodyparts and forms. In order for a body part like that to
have kept evolving (assuming it was useless) would be if the animal never even
bothered with it.

Which brings up the next problem. These "useless" bodyparts are the jaws. Out
of all the external parts of the body, the jaws are by far the most important
(well with animals that is and in most cases). So in order for a "useless"
trait in the jaws to develop, Suchomimus would have to have found a new way to
eat.

Hence why the evolution of useless jaws doesn't seem to work. No these jaws
were specialized for whatever the animal ate.

So what did it eat?

Other than fish, the other idea that I like is the one that someone had
already posted on the list. About Sucho tearing open insect nests and such and
then rooting it's snout in their for the food. Kinda like a Baryonyx
Deinocheirus mix.

The only problem with this theory is the teeth. Why not just a nice mobile
tongue instead. Regardless of how much bigger termites were back then, I'm
sure they were still comparitively small enough to syphon rather than snap.

There is only one other idea that comes to mind. Perhaps it rooted little
deinosaurs and other animals out from their burrows. That could explain the
jaws and the claws.

Considering how nature works, the animal probably did all three.


Archosaur J

Jurassosaurus's Reptipage: A page devoted to the study of the reptilia

http://members.tripod.com/~jurassosauridae/index.html

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