Re: Dinosaur Questions, Relating Vaguely to Dinosaur Park Formation

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

At 06:35 PM 6/15/99 -0400, Grant Harding wrote:
>Thomas R. Holtz, Jr., wrote:
>>Ornithomimosaurs and caenagnathids are more problematic: omnivore might
>>represent the best concensus.
>
>If meat was in fact part of their diet, what would be the size range for
>their prey?

Hard to say: presumably relatively smaller for the (more delicately skulled)
ornithomimosaurs than for the caenagnathids.  Still, I would be surprised if
either group tackled prey bigger than a juvenile hadrosaurid.

>>>Erlikosaurus andrewsi
>>
>>Not really applicable in this case: the cf. _Erlikosaurus_ material simply
>>looks like it: it has yet to be demonstrated it's even therizinosauroid.
>>The specimen in question (a frontal) is about the size of the same bone in
>>big Dinosaur Park Fm. _Troodon_ specimens, so IF you want it to be a
>>therizinosauroid, then you could take your _Troodon_ mass estimate and
>>multiply by 1.5 to 2 (therizinosauroids are fat relative to troodontids).
>>Or, you could recognize that estimating masses from isolated frontals might
>>not be that good an idea... :-)
>
>Okay.  Thanks.  But what about the actual, known, Mongolian _E. andrewsi_?
>Know of a suggested mass for that guy?

Hmmm...  Russell & Dong estimate it at 160 kg.

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