Re: Rookie Questions

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

At 03:22 PM 9/16/98 PDT, Jessica Wagar wrote:
>Okie, here's some questions I have, that shouldn't be too hard to 
>answer...

Unless, of course, nobody has ever done the study, as in:

>5)What's the bite pressure/an estimate of the bite pressure of
>Tyrannosaurus rex
>Allosaurus fragilis
>Giganotosaurus
>Utahraptor O.
>Carnotaurus
>Megalosaurus

The Erickson et al. paper on _T. rex_ bite force estimate was just about the
first serious calculation of this sort.  These other forms have not yet been
studied to evaluate their bite forces, just as nobody has calculated
tripping effects for all these other taxa.

In general, if you hear about a new study on the news or on the net or what
have you, don't assume that follow up analyses have been done beyond what
they talk about.  Science takes time to do, and when stuff reaches the
press, that may be all the results obtained so far.

Incidentally, _Megalosaurus_ would be extraordinarily hard to extimate, as
no complete skull of the critter is known.

Back to the hindlimb...

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:tholtz@geol.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661