Re: infuriating Bakker

[longrich@alumni.princeton.edu]

On Tuesday, August 6, 2002, at 02:48 PM, ekaterina A wrote:

> --- DinoBoyGraphics@aol.com wrote:
> > weren't tweaked in peer review.  I did think his
> > functional analysis was
> > pretty good in that paper.  His conclusions also
> > jive well with the
> > finite-elements analysis done on allosaur skulls.
>
> The functional analysis is really good to read. But as
> I was working through it all these Bakkerisms really
> blocked the path. This is the first paper where I am
> seeing a good reconstruction of theropod musculature.
> He is clearly a great artist.
> -EA

	I was pretty frustrated by some of his reasoning. For example he 
cites the mediolateral expansion of the teeth in allosaurids as making 
them stronger to better resist being drawn backwards. This is true, but 
expanding them anteroposteriorly- as in sabertoothed mammals- would make 
them far stronger for the same amount of material.
	In terms of dentition, sabertooths tend to have exceptionally long 
upper teeth which are mediolaterally compressed. In other words the 
teeth are... saber like. _Ceratosaurus_ seems to fit this bill pretty 
well, _Allosaurus_ doesn't, where the teeth are perhaps better described 
as chisel like in being so short and massive. Another thing that occurs 
to me is that sabertooth cat teeth are serrated if I recall, it would 
make sense to see which if any theropods the cat teeth most closely 
resembled.