Re: Skulls and arms...

[Silvio Renesto <renesto@mailserver.unimi.it>]

>
>The fly in the ointment is, of course, _Carnotaurus_, with its bizzare
>short snout and ridiculous truncated arms.  But that's just a weird
>animal, and there's no legislating for it :-)  It did occur to me that
>the short snout might be pathological (am I right in thinking that
>there's only one, very well preserved, _Carnotaurus_ specimen?) but we
>also the skull from _Majungatholus_ which is similar.
>

>From a non-dinosaurian specialist (so don't be too crude if there is some
ingenuity):

While I agree with most of your statements here, I think (maybe wrongly who
knows?) that any  pathology affecting snout (=feeding abilities) would
hardly let an animal live enough to get large size.
So IMHO we have to live with a  short-snouted dwarf-limbed carnotaur. 

>So what kind of selection pressure could produce a small head _and_
>small forearms, together with that distinctive but presumably useless
>long thorax?

What about the neck?  **Might** it bring a plausible solution?

Cheers

                                        Silvio Renesto



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"where does Taiji came from? It came from Wuji"   
                                        (Wang Zongyue)
Dr. Silvio Renesto
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra
Università degli Studi di Milano
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