Re: Beipiaosaurus and sauropod ancestry

["T. Mike Keesey" <tkeese1@gl.umbc.edu>]

On Mon, 21 Jun 1999 Dinogeorge@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 6/21/99 0:12:20 AM EST, qilongia@yahoo.com writes:
> 
> << Really, it appears to be a weight-related feature, but hopefully this can 
> be  clarified by further study >>
> 
> Don't think it's weight-related. Alxasaurus is a far smaller animal than 
> Tyrannosaurus, yet Alxasaurus shows the segnosaurian foot whereas 
> Tyrannosaurus has a typically theropodan (albeit massively built, of course) 
> foot with highly reduced first toe. If it were purely a weight issue, one 
> would expect tyrannosaurids and many other large theropods to show 
> segnosaurian readaptation of the first toe.

Perhaps it's a graviportal issue?

--T. Michael Keesey
tkeese1@gl.umbc.edu | THE DINOSAURICON: http://dinosaur.umbc.edu/
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