RE: Rookie Questions

["Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>]

Hi;

   There is (I think) only one species of Protoceratops.  I'm sure someone
will correct this, if I'm wrong.
   As far as Hadrosaur defenses, I agree about kicking - the biomechanics
seem wrong for that.  I'm not sure about Hadrosaurs biting as a defense.  I
think pretty much any animal WILL in a pinch.  I wonder about the
effectiveness of Hadrosaur tails as a defense.  It seems to me that I have
read that as much as 50% of the weight of some Hadrosaurs might have been in
the tail.  That would be a pretty formidable bludgeon. And with the taller
Hadrosaurs, the tail would have been pretty high off the ground.  The person
who would know (if anyone would) might be Dr. Horner, who is a Hadrosaur
expert.  He wrote a book some years back, called (I believe) "Digging
Dinosaurs", in which there was a good bit of information about Hadrosaurs.
I believe it's still in print.

Dwight

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   tlford@ix.netcom.com [SMTP:tlford@ix.netcom.com]
        Sent:   Friday, September 18, 1998 3:05 AM
        To:     dinosaur@usc.edu; gobi2010@hotmail.com
        Subject:        Re: Rookie Questions

        GOBI 2010 wrote:
        > 
        > Okie, here's some questions I have, that shouldn't be too hard to
        > answer...

        > 2) How many species of Protoceratops are there and what are the
Species
        > names? I know there's at least 2-P. andrewsi (If I remember
        > correctly)....and some other ones....what's the difference in the
two
        > forms?

        Are you asking specificaly about Protoceratops or Protoceratopsidae?

        > 3)Why aren't there many dinosaurs with names that start with 'z'?

        Probably for the same reson there aren't very many words that start
with
        'z'.

        > 4)Could 'duckbills' have deffended themselves by kicking,clawing
or
        > biting predators? Or maybe by puking like vultures?
        Kicking and clawing is out. Why you may ask? Because of the tail,
it's
        in the way. I did some drawings for Darren Tanke nearly 10 years ago
        (has it actually been that long?) about how hadrosaurs could have
gotten
        broken ribs. They couldn't kick backwards the tail is in the way.
The
        legs dont' move sideways, so thats out, and only way for a forward
kick
        to work is if the kicking animal held onto the kicked animal with
its
        front legs. The more formable weopon IMHO is the mouth.

        Glad to hear your not discourged by the list. If you don't find the
        answer to you questions, write them down, and in the furture if you
want
        to prosue paleontology, you can take up the question and answer it
for
        all of us.I've several written questions that I hope to prosue.

        For example...

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

        Only Tyrannosaurus rex has been done (as answered by a list member
and
        Megalosaurus is being done). So in the furture you could take it up.

        Tracy