Re: Thoughts about the arboreal dinosaur

[Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

ducks have serrated bumpy bits on their bills for grip on slippery
things -doesn't count as teeth quite though.

-Betty

Dann Pigdon wrote:
> 
> ? Grant Harding wrote:
> ?
> ? Hi all!
> ?
> ? That new hatchling dinosaur that Luis Rey mentioned with the
> ? aye-aye-like finger and opposable hallux sounds fascinating.  It would
> ? have been neat to see it... Anyway, I have some questions about it
> ? that hopefully someone can answer.
> ?
> ? First of all, when I was looking through a bird identification guide
> ? the other day, I learned that nightjars and hummingbirds have an
> ? elongated middle toe with a curved claw called a "feather-comb", used
> ? for grooming.  I'm also guessing that aye-ayes probably use their
> ? elongated finger partly for combing their fur (in addition to finding
> ? and digging out insects).  This made me wonder: could the long finger
> ? on the new dinosaur indicate the presence of some kind of feathery or
> ? dinofuzzy integument? (Assuming that none was preserved, of course;
> ? once again, I haven't seen the specimen.)
> ?
> 
> I have also suggested this for the enlongated digit of Sinosauropteryx
> (as long as the ulna). Personally, I'd think that serrated teeth
> wouldn't have been all that useful in grooming fuzz or feathers, hence
> fuzzy theropods may have had alternative grooming devices (elongated
> fingers, maybe ever the ancestor of the pedal "sickle claw"). I'd
> imagine serrated teeth designed for slicing flesh would end up clogged
> with bits of fuzz, doing more harm than good. I can't think of any
> living animals that have fuzzy integumentary structures AND serrated
> teeth. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
> 
> --
> ____________________________________________
>         Dann Pigdon
>         GIS Archaeologist
>         Melbourne, Australia
> 
>         Australian Dinosaurs:
>         http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
>         http://www.geocities.com/dannj.geo
> ____________________________________________

-- 
Flying Goat Graphics
http://www.flyinggoat.com
(Society of Vertebrate Paleontology member)
-------------------------------------------<,D,><