Re: What is a Dinosaur? and semilunate carpal

["Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

David Marjanovic wrote:

> "It's nice to see that Owen's fused sacrum is still there,

Ouch.  That must have been very painful for Owen.  No wonder the fellow was 
so disagreeable.
                                                                   :-)


> The ulna of *Allosaurus* has a flange that locks the radius in place.
> Neither of these bones is proximally rounded in cross-section. If you look
> at it, you see immediately that it couldn't rotate.

I wonder if this feature, like the increasingly inflexible wrist of 
tetanurines, was designed to prevent the forelimb and hand from "wobbling" 
while gripping prey - in other words, providing a more stable and secure 
grip while engaging struggling prey.



Tim









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