Re: Alvarezsaur Polarity and Features

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Longrich" <longrich@alumni.princeton.edu>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2001 8:54 AM
Subject: Re: Alvarezsaur Polarity and Features


> Otherwise, the shorter your
> limbs, the more force they can generate, so the better they are as
> digging tools.

Might this be the reason why tyrannosaur arms were so short but used, of all
things, to hold prey? (Good arguments for this: Kenneth Carpenter & Matt
Smith: Forelimb Osteology and Biomechanics of *Tyrannosaurus rex*, in
Mesozoic Vertebrate Life)

> But I don't pretend to have the final answer, and an
> alternative hypothesis has been proposed: Anton Wroblewski
> [...] once drew a picture of
> a Mononykus using its claw to open the pop-tab on a beer. [...]

:-D
If that is the only alternative...

> Maybe I could get Budweiser to sponsor an expedition to the
> Gobi to look for old cans and bottles as evidence for this
> hypothesis...

Actually, AFAIK there are such cans around, left from the Andrews
expedition. 8-)