RE: Phil Currie celebration, tyrant skin, and other things

["Larry Dunn" <saurosuchus@hotmail.com>]

> From: "Tracy L. Ford" <dino.hunter@home.com>

> Something that needs to be considered is grooming. If they have feathers
> they also have to be able to groom and clean them. Tyrannosaurs couldn't
> reach around and clean itself.

Do animals with feathers always have to be able to groom them?  I've seen
illustrations of tyrannosaurids with display feathers on their forelimbs.
I'd think it would be difficult to clean those.  But what would the adverse
consequences be if these weren't kept clean?

Playing the speculation game, I guess a tyrannosaur could swish its
forelimbs in the local water hole as it took a drink.

Do the scaly skin impressions associated with those tyrannosaur fossils mean
that the tyrannosaurs did not *also* have smooth skin areas where feathers
used to be (or still were)?

Larry Dunn
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com