RE: Muscles : Most annyoing question in DML history!

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> dexter dexter
>
>
> http://hometown.aol.com/lestatk/
>
> Okay, this has been bothering me for a while. For the last
> two years or so, I keep hearing t-rex biased fans claiming
> that the big guy was "more powerful, faster, more advanced,
> more gracile[etc.]" than G. carolinii, you get the picture ?

Starting off with a modified dog food jingle:
"My dino's better than your dino,
My dino's better than yours.
My dino's better
'Cause he eats Kennel Ration.
My dino's better than yours."
...
(Product of a TV generation, I suppose...)

Short snide answer first:
_Giganotosaurus_ and _Tyrannosaurus_ are equally powerful now.  They are
both dead, and while they can both be used to prop open doorways and such,
neither is doing much in the killing industry anymore.

Longer, somewhat less snide answer:
The question really doesn't have any useful meaning, any more than asking
"who was the better fighter, Alexander the Great or Shaka?"  Interesting in
a philosophical sense, but next to meaningless in any real historical sense.

Parenthetical comment:
(Incidentally, there are plenty of website-based discussion groups that
focus on which dinosaur can beat up which other dinosaur, so perhaps one
might find more satisfaction there if these are the burning topics in
paleontology to you).

Semi-serious part:
Very little work has been done on the actual biomechanics of individual
specimens of any taxa (and remember, mechanical strength etc. are ultimately
properties of individuals, not taxa), and the vast majority of taxa have not
had any kind of biomechanical study, full stop.  This applies to living taxa
as well as fossil forms.  Therefore most statements of the "which is more
powerful" sense are untested as yet, and quite frankly might be untestable.

Tracy did point out some very useful observations of what might be meant by
"_T. rex_ was more powerful than _Giganotosaurus_."  As for some of the
other statements you mentioned: in terms of limb proportions, tyrannosaurids
are demonstrably more gracile than carnosaurs.  Also, tyrannosaurids are
again "more derived" or "more advanced" (i.e., have undergone more
anatomical modifications) from the basal tetanurine condition.  (By the same
token, _Shuvuuia_ is "more advanced" than _T. rex_).

Now back to being horribly late on some really important projects.  Later...

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796