Eustreptospondylus & Carcharodontosaurines

[Waylon Rowley <whte_rbt_obj@yahoo.com>]

      HP DR Thomas Holtz said the new juvenile
Ceratosaurus nasicornis skull looks like a
Eustreptospondylus with little horns. I believe he
also suggested a new placement for Ceratosaurus? I
don't know. I deleted that mail too hastily. 
      Personally, I haven't been able to study the
material of Eustreptospondylus (=Magnosaurus Rauhut
2000), but it sounds like a very important animal. I
have seen a few low-quality drawings of the skull in
various places, but nothing that detailed. Same goes
for the postcrania. If someone can find a good picture
of Eustreptospondylus or Magnosaurus, I would like to
analyze it myself. If Rauhut is right, then it is a
crucial taxon at the base of Tetanurae, which are my
favorite group of theropods.
      Has anyone considered the phylogeny of
"Wyomingraptor?" What happened to this dinosaur? Is it
awaiting description? I looked at the arms on the Tate
Museum website and the sheer size of the claw's flexor
tubercles makes me suspect affinities to basal
carnosaurs like Fukuiraptor, Xuanhanosaurus (another
animal I need info about!) or "Torvosaurs."
      Before I log off, I would also like to throw an
idea out for consideration. I was looking at my cast
of a Giganotosaurus tooth, and of course I knew that
the horizontal undulations on the enamel where
synapomorphic for the group, so I began wondering what
these abnormal features were for. I think they may
have served as a reinforcement for the tooth when
biting (or slamming) down on the tough armored skin of
a Titanosaur. These teeth are so thin that it makes me
wonder how a creature like this could take on the
largest organisms that ever graced the earth. But like
fluting on the barrel of a rifle, the grooves would
have added strength to the brittle carinae to create a
more effective armor-piercing blade. Since the
serrations are more distally oriented I would suspect
they were more capable of withstanding impact. The
reduced recurvature is also indicative of
armor-piercing, as any of you familiar with combat
knives would know (i.e. look at a tanto knife).  I 
imagine that a G. carolinii would use a "Bakkerian"
hatchet-style attack and twist the chunks of flesh
off. Does this make sense? 

Cheers,
Waylon Rowley      
      

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