RE: Vestigial Arms (was: Theropod limbs - how mobile?)

[Jura <archosaur@reptilis.net>]

>
>David Marjanovic wrote:
>
>> I'm thinking about whether this would imply sexual dimorphism (probably
>>  not testable because of the sample size)... and whether it's possible 
>> to hold a tyrannosaur with such hands without inflicting serious wounds 
>> to it. :-/
>
>I think it was Osborn who first suggested that male tyrannosaurids used
>their forelimbs as claspers during copulation.
>
>For boid snakes, both males and females have pelvic spurs - but only the
>males use them for copulation.  However, males tend to have proportionally
>larger pelvic spurs than females - at least for _Python reticulatus_ (Shine
>et al., 1998; J. Zool. Lond. 244: 405-414).

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Do we have enough associated tyrannosaur forelimb material (i.e. with a 
skeleton that we can get some decent measurments off of) to determine if there 
might have been sexual dimorphism there?

Jura

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